


Kismet, Kill Me

by Jessadilla (orphan_account)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Crush, Blind Date, Chatting & Messaging, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pidge uses she/her and they/them, Pining, Primarily a Klance fic, Slow Build, but there will be some minor focus on the other couples as well, klance, twenty somethings figuring stuff out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-19
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-15 20:59:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 56,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8072554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Jessadilla
Summary: This WAS NOT a crush. It was just a mild infatuation with a stranger that Keith would forget about in a few days. So why was his laptop open, his browser connected to the Missed Connections section of Craigslist for his area? And why was he typing out a post against his better judgment? And why, oh god, why was he hitting send? All for a pair of dazzling blue eyes and a brilliant smile.Worth it? Maybe. Or maybe he'd regret it till his dying day.Update: Feb 2k17: Guys, I still haven't officially given up on this fic, but am going through some personal stuff right now that is not helpful in the motivating me to write department. So so sorry! :(





	1. That Feeling When: You are Crushing So Hard

**Author's Note:**

> I'm super surprised that missed connections is not an official tag... This idea started as a fake relationship trope then spiraled out of my control.
> 
> Sorry for all the weirdness in this story.

**Sunday, October 11th**

  

> **Legacy Bar in Downtown -m4m (Downtown LA)**
> 
>  
> 
> _I met you on Friday night. You pretended to be my boyfriend to get some jerk to leave me alone, even though I didn’t need your help. You’re tall, kind of lanky, I think. You had on a loose sweater (it was dark teal), so it was hard to tell. Dark brown hair, blue eyes, lighter side of brown skin, I guess. It was dim, so, again, hard to tell. Oh you were also singing there that night. With your band. I got pulled away before I could catch the whole show, but I thought you were really cute and your voice was so good and you’re way outta my leaggueeafkewajfewaiofejaoi joijeio jjfiwoejafeioj_
> 
>  

“UGH! This is so _stupid_ !” Keith yelled and practically slammed shut his laptop. Shiro had a great track record up until this point in Keith’s life, but maybe it was time to find someone else to help him sort out his life. He had never led him astray, but now Keith was beginning to rethink his wisdom as he sat and stared at his computer, his face still flushed from even _thinking_ of attempting to write a Missed Connections post.

Keith was trying to nail down the precise moment where the path of his life had diverged from the upstanding citizen his parents had tried to mold him into to the man who was crushing on a total stranger and trying to track him down via some website that has a serial killer named after it. He estimated it was somewhere between ages fifteen and seventeen.

He only had himself to blame, honestly. He knew that. Because what you get when you bring up even the slightest hint of an idea of romantic inklings to your older cousin who is basically like your older brother, you get meddling. _Heavy_ meddling. You get advice you didn’t need or want but you follow it anyway because Shiro makes you feel like you ought to. If he hadn’t mentioned the crush to Shiro, he’d be well on his way to repressing and moving on, as is what happens with most of his crushes: they are strong and sweep him up, but within days they fizzle out.

In fact, Keith wasn’t even swept up. This wasn’t even a crush. This was an infatuation at best. A pretty guy had talked to him in a bar and he was just letting the fact that he hadn’t dipped his foot in the dating pool for almost four years cloud his judgment. Relationships were a pain and they were tiring, and he’d let a pretty face make him forget that. So why were his fingers still strumming across his desk, his eyes glued to his shut laptop and his left leg shaking as he tapped his heel to the ground? After a moment, he reclined in his desk chair with his arms folded over his chest and thought back to the night in question.

 

+++++++

 

**Friday, October 9th**

 

Shiro had invited him out. It was to celebrate some breakthrough in a project he was working on. Normally Keith didn’t go to bars. Crowds of drunken people weren’t his scene; crowds, in general, weren’t his scene. But Shiro hardly ever had time to hang out for fun anymore, so Keith obliged. He even decided to get _fancy_ and wear a nice red and white, striped sweater and some black slacks.

Shiro had promised that the bar was cool. He’d been there a few times and it had “a Five Stein review on the BarFiend app” whatever the hell that meant. Keith had always trusted Shiro’s judgment and it had gotten him through the past twenty-two years mostly unscathed, so he wasn’t going to kick up some dirt if the place turned out to be a dive. Much to his relief, the place was nice. Nothing too gimmicky or pretentious, just some neon signs and a few decoration choices that seemed personal more than anything.

The entrance led straight to the bar and a few tables. In a large archway to the left, there were more seats and a small stage for either bands or DJs; probably both. Keith could hear people playing pool somewhere further back through a thin hallway, but he wasn’t interested enough to check it out. He walked in relatively early for a Friday night so the bar was still pretty empty and Keith was able to snatch up a seat fairly easily. The people wandering in off 8th street seemed to be more focused on the seating in the stage area.

Keith ordered a drink and played a game on his phone while he waited for Shiro to arrive. After about twenty minutes of this his phone buzzed; Shiro said he had been held up but he was on his way. He was coming from Little Tokyo so Keith knew he wouldn’t have to wait much longer. He looked around and noticed that the bar had filled up pretty quickly around him with a very interesting looking crowd, for the most part (no bar is ever free from an assortment of frat bros or women that look they came off the set of Mean Girls). He was suddenly very glad he decided to forego his usual shirt and jeans combo in lieu of something in which he felt that he looked at least halfway decent.

Another few minutes had gone by and he sipped up the last bit of alcohol in his drink but decided he was going to wait for Shiro to show up and buy him another one instead of spending any more money. He placed the glass of ice down on the bar, leaving the stirring straw in his mouth to chew on while he tapped mindlessly at his game with both elbows on the bar to lazily hold his phone up.

The bar was becoming more crowded by the minute and people were walking in between the barstools to place orders with the (exceedingly serene) bartenders. Someone had just walked into his left, bumping his shoulder and apologizing when Keith’s attention was drawn elsewhere.  

“What’re you drinking?” Keith heard from his right. He ignored it and continued his game, assuming the question was for someone else. Then there was a hand on his right shoulder, gently tugging on him.

“Finally...oh,” Keith said, thinking the hand was Shiro’s. Instead, it belonged to some blonde, white guy in a decent suit that was clinging awkwardly to the muscles stuffed into it. The man was smiling at him with what he probably considered his million dollar grin. Keith pulled the chewed up straw from his mouth and put it down on the bar.

“What’re you drinking?” He asked again, his polite tone underlined with a hint of entitlement that immediately put Keith on guard and rubbed him the wrong way. The noise in the bar was becoming much more raucous and, for Keith, it was not worth the effort to strain himself to hear whatever snake oil this guy was selling.

“I’m not,” Keith deadpanned loudly. The man chuckled something that sounded practiced and grating as if Keith had told him a joke that he was in on. Joke was on him if he thought Keith would play along to whatever it was he was trying to do.

“I just saw you put your glass down. That wasn’t your drink?” There was a hint of laughter in the man’s voice; as if this was a little game for him to test Keith’s limits. Each word only raised Keith’s blood pressure.

“It was. But I finished it,” Keith said. The man’s smile grew wider and Keith raised an eyebrow in disgust.

“Well let me refill it for you. What’re you having?” Blondie repeated. Again. It didn’t escape Keith’s attention that this man had closed in on what small gap there had been between them. He could practically feel this guy’s breath on his face; it was bad enough he could smell whatever shitty cologne the man was wearing, now this. Keith’s fist was clenching his phone tightly and he could see this entire thing going south with one or two more exchanges. The man easily had a hundred pounds on him, probably more, but Keith was scrappy and he had fought guys like this before.

“No thanks,” Keith said. Shiro would be so proud. He was the picture of diplomacy; he was using his words, not his fists, despite every tense muscle in his body screaming at him to do so. Even so, his tone was underlying with irritation. 

“Hey, no need to be like that. How about I get you one of what I’m having? And all you gotta do is talk with me for a little while,” the man said. Keith’s heartbeat picked up and he worried that by the time Shiro arrived, it would be too late; he’d be outside, probably waiting to get arrested. The man looked like he was moving to put his hand back on Keith's shoulder.

“Listen--” Keith began, mentally preparing himself for what was about to go down. Suddenly there was an arm sliding over his shoulder and a voice whispering in his ear “play along” before a head was resting on the opposite shoulder.

“Hey babe, did you make a new friend?” The voice said in a sly tone. Keith was dumbfounded. His brain was trying to catch up with the situation and all he could do was stutter. The arm that was hanging on his shoulder stretched out towards the blonde slimeball. “Hey. Name’s Lance. I see you’ve already met my boyfriend. And you are?”

The blonde slimeball grimaced in disgust, regarding the hand being offered to him like it was smeared in shit. Keith almost smiled, but he was still extremely perplexed at the body that was flat against his back and draped over him like they’d known each other for years. The white bro said some things under his breath--which Keith was sure were a few swears and slurs and the word “tease” definitely stuck out--before turning around and moving down the bar to focus on someone else. Immediately the body pulled away from Keith and he practically sagged in relief at the newfound lack of contact.

“Hey Thace, keep an eye on that guy. He looks like just the type of asshole to have a wallet filled with roofies,” the guy was saying to the bartender.

“I’ll tell Iverson,” the bartender said gruffly, with a nod. Keith finally turned his body towards the person who had attempted to pose as his white knight, ready to chew him out for the invasion of personal space.

“Sorry about the physical contact. But my spider-senses were tingling that the conversation was going south really fast,” the guy who had introduced himself as “Lance” said. He was leaning on his side, with one elbow on the bar so he could fit imperfectly between Keith and the barfly at the next seat.

Keith wanted to speak, really. He wanted to say anything to this beautiful man staring at him, but he was completely distracted by the attention he was receiving from said beautiful man who was very clearly out of his league. Even in the dimmed light of the bar, the man’s eyes were a startling blue. His hair was well groomed, short, and looked like he came straight out of a shampoo commercial. His shoulders were broad but the sweater he was wearing was loose fitting as it traveled down to his waist. Keith’s eyes traveled back to “Lance’s” face and he suddenly realized he hadn’t spoken yet as the man eyed him curiously.

“I could’ve handled him,” Keith said curtly. The Lance guy laughed through his nose.

“I know. Your muscles are practically popping out of that sweater. But I thought it’d be better to avoid a bar fight and having you thrown out. It would really kill the vibe in here, you know?” Lance replied. His smile wasn’t like the slimeball's smile. His smile was very genuine and bright. Keith sighed and nodded.

“Thanks then,” he submitted. The bartender slid two drinks towards Lance. Lance picked one up and sipped at it before speaking again.

“No problem. I hate guys like that. Creepy _and_ douchey all in one package. He belongs in an _AXE_ commercial. His mother must be so proud,” Lance said in a snarky tone while his eyes moved away from Keith’s face for a moment and wandered through the crowd, presumably to watch blonde slimeball. “Just keep an eye out. No offense, but alone at the bar and you’re kind of small, so he might not be the last one to bother you...if you--” Keith cut him off.

“I’m not _small,”_ he grimaced.

“Sorry. But you have a kind of lithe appearance, my friend. So maybe you--” Lance started again, but Keith cut him off again, unintentionally.

“And I’m not alone. I’m waiting for someone,” Keith said matter-of-factly. It was kind of this stranger to worry about him, but no one was going to mess with Keith once Shiro showed up. Lance raised his eyebrows and his mouth puckered out a little in thought as he nodded. A small, but still genuine, smile crossed his lips again as he reached for the second drink.

“Give him another Tom Collins, Thace. Add it to my tab,” he shouted to the bartender. The bartender nodded as he continued his order for another patron without looking up. Then Lance turned to Keith again.

“Well, I have a thirsty friend. And I don’t want to make your _someone_ jealous. Take care. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Lance said with a wink before he turned to make his way through the crowd.

“He’s not a date!” Keith called after him. He knew Lance couldn’t hear him and yet he had been compelled to give that information away freely, unsolicited. Yikes. Shiro needed to show up before Keith did something stupid for a pair of the deepest blue eyes he had ever seen.

A few more minutes had passed and Keith was back on his phone, occasionally glancing over his shoulder. Searching. He’d pretend it was for Shiro. Suddenly the bartender placed a drink down in front of him.

“Tom Collins,” he said before moving on to another task. Keith grabbed it and sipped gingerly. He heard the familiar noises of feedback on the speakers and realized the band must be starting soon. He turned away from the bar and pocketed his phone while scanning the crowd. All the seats that had been empty when he arrived were packed and there were several patrons packed in between tables, leaning against walls, all facing the stage and waiting.

A short person with some of the coolest hair--an undercut beneath an elegant, fluffy nest of light chestnut hair-- that Keith had ever seen walked up onstage and immediately kneeled down to mess with some equipment on the floor. They were wearing large thick-framed glasses and a loose shirt with a jean vest and leggings. There was something very nonchalant about their entire demeanor that struck a chord with Keith. Obviously, the feeling was mutual with some of the other patrons because Keith heard a few hoots and greetings from the crowd. He continued watching them mess around with equipment before a large guy in a tee-shirt and cargo pants and an orange headband showed up with wires wrapped around one arm, leaving them in the back of the stage. He then started pulling up some instrument cases.

Keith, for some reason unknown to him, was very interested in these two and their set up procedures. He just stared intently, sipping on his drink, while they messed around with a synthesizer and some other instruments with which Keith wasn’t very familiar. He couldn’t hear them from his distance but he saw the large guy stand up and wave over to someone, beckoning them to the stage as he said something. A few seconds later, Lance was hopping onto the stage with a guitar over his shoulder. Hunk plugged the guitar into a wire and walked over to the speakers while Lance messed with some chords for testing. The large guy said something and Lance burst out into laughter and Keith was completely mesmerized by how his glittering smile took over the majority of his face.

This went on for about another minute before Lance walked to the center mic stand and grabbed onto it.

“This is a testing of the emergency broadcast system. Oh, Hunk. Emergency Broadcast System. Cool band name, eh?” He turned to the big guy who was apparently Hunk, and Hunk just shook his head with a half-smile as he walked over to a keyboard by a second mic.

“No, Lance,” Hunk said softly into the mic. There was laughter in the crowd. “But we’re good to go,” Hunk added and took his place behind the keyboard. The first person was still knelt down on the stage by several synthesizers and other colorful looking machines.

“Alright. Well thanks, folks, for coming out tonight. Of all the bars you could have chosen in Downtown, you walked into this one. We’ll try not to make you regret it,” Lance paused. While the crowd murmured with quiet laughter, he tuned his guitar slightly and cleared his throat.

“Okay, so we’re the Mouthbreathers. That’s not our band name, but sometimes Hunk and I get a little carried away with the mics. That is your official warning for you newbies in the crowd,” Lance paused again before backing away from the mic and saying something to Pidge. The joke wasn’t that funny, but the crowd was laughing. They were feeding off of Lance’s energy, and Keith had to admit he felt it too. There was definitely something about him that seemed to bring a positive energy into a room. He spoke to a crowd as though he were speaking to a group of friends. Lance cleared his throat again after the person by the synthesizers nodded.

“Okay, so you all know Pidge. Wave, Pidge,” Lance said as he glanced back towards the person. Pidge raised an arm but then quickly dropped it back down to hover over some buttons. Lance lightly laughed into the microphone and Keith felt that _something_ in his chest again.

“Well the first song we’re gonna sing for you tonight is called _Demigirl_ . Pidge wrote it and it’s fucking beautiful, and probably too good for you guys. _But_ the Hollywood Bowl isn’t calling us back, so we hope you like and appreciate it!” Lance said. There was the slightest murmur of laughter again before Hunk began playing the keyboard.

It was a nice enough melody, Keith thought, but the real emotion of the piece came in with Pidge and the sounds they were producing off of the machines. Lance came in with the guitar last, a simple rhythm that he kept repeating as the other sounds changed. Keith was taken aback by how soulful the music sounded with such non-traditional instruments. He was more surprised by how much he was liking it. And then Lance started singing.

Keith’s hand gripped on his glass as if he was holding on for dear life. Maybe he was. Keith suddenly heard nothing in the bar anymore. No chatter, no glasses clinking, or pool balls clicking, or that one person that is always crying in a bar. It was all quiet and all he heard was the music and Lance’s voice. His range matched up with the sounds that Pidge and Hunk were mixing together in minor chords to create some kind of energetic, haunting tune. Hunk occasionally joined in on soft vocals. The guitar strummed along. The words to the song didn’t exactly match the music, they were much more light, and Keith loved the juxtaposition.

When the song was finished, there wasn’t a body in the place that wasn’t hooting or clapping or cheering. Keith felt so compelled he had been clapping his hand against his glass without realizing it. He took a long drink from it, downing half the glass in one gulp.

“I love you, Pidge!” Keith heard someone shout from the crowd as the applause died down. He smiled as Pidge looked up from the machines and straightened their glasses while looking out to the crowd. They gave a thumbs up and a goofy smile before pulling their attention back to the synthesizers.

“As a reminder guys, we do have all completed songs up on iTunes. We’ll give you a link after the show. If you’re old school, we do have some hard copies in the form of what my grandma refers to as a, uh, Compact Disc? It’s old technology, but I hear some people have antiques that play them,” Lance let off a snarky laugh as the crowd was split between groans and laughter. Lance cleared his throat and a wide smile crossed his face and Keith felt his heart thud again. Every damn time.

“Alright alright. I’m just joshin’ ya! So our next song is called _Deep Blue._ It’s one of mine so take your bathroom breaks now. But come back because I think Hunk’s going to break out his _keylele_ afterwards!” Lance looked over at Hunk.

“It’s a definite possibility,” Hunk said with a warm smile. There were a few hoots in the crowd before Lance counted down and the band started up again. This song was much more energetic and upbeat than the first, but still had that same feel that made Keith’s breaths float around in his chest for a minute before he could exhale. Colors flashed through his mind; pinks and oranges, sunsets and beaches. Suddenly Keith felt nostalgic for memories that he never had. A different life.

He decided he was either drunk off of two drinks or completely infatuated with this band’s singer and his voice. Then, Hunk came in with chorus vocals as Lance played something complicated on his guitar that Keith thought was impressive. Then another set of vocals in the chorus. Keith looked to Pidge, but their mouth wasn’t moving and he realized the voice was recorded; another sound from the machine acting as an instrument. Keith was definitely buzzed, but still, it was impressive for some unknown, unnamed band playing music on a small bar stage.

He wasn’t the only one that thought so either. Everyone in the bar was paying attention to the band. People were sitting, watching silently, or swaying or hip-shaking. Some people were even singing along. Keith felt so out of place with all these people and yet the music was wrapped around him, comforting him, welcoming him into the scene. He was _so_ getting a link to their iTunes downloads after the show. The music stopped and Keith heard himself cheering without intending to do so. The rest of the crowd was clapping and hooting again. This time, Lance was getting confessions of love thrown at him and Keith wished he was brave enough to shout it out, too, since Lance wouldn’t know it was him anyway.  

Suddenly a gorgeous young woman with dark brown skin and dyed silver hair jogged up on stage and wrapped her arms around Lance before whispering in his ear. Her clothes were high-end and she had to be wearing shoes worth more than Keith’s monthly rent. Lance listened to her for a minute before his eyes lit up and he smiled wide. Keith felt two pangs. The smile was brilliant and, at this point, he could tell exactly when his heart would thud just from witnessing it, but he was jealous that this beautiful woman was the one who caused it.

 _Get a grip!_ Keith told himself, putting his drink down. He ordered a water from the bartender, who gave him some kind of disapproving look before walking down the bar a-ways.

“You guys are in for a treat tonight. You all remember Shay?” Lance asked enthusiastically as the woman that was holding on to him left the stage and moved to the front of the crowd, arms crossed primly. The crowd gave Lance a resounding affirmative.

“Well, I’ve been informed by the lovely Allura that Shay just showed up! So how would you guys feel about a duet?” There were moderate cheers in the crowd. “Shay? Whaddaya say, girl? You up for it? That song you and Hunk’ve been working on is dying to be heard by an audience!”

Keith could hear a woman speaking to him from the crowd. It was at a distance, and he had no idea what was being said, but the voice sounded hesitant.

“Shay, since when are you shy?” Lance said. He turned to Hunk.

“I think it’s ready,” Hunk shrugged, with a gentle smile towards the direction of the woman’s voice.

“Please?” Lance said, still looking out into the crowd. The bar patrons mimicked him, pleading over and over. Keith felt a pull at the corner of his mouth, a smile forming. The same feeling from before hit him: it was like he was in a very large group of friends. That was how Lance made everyone feel. Like the audience was all connected, all together as one big happy group. Finally, Keith heard a begrudging “yes” from the same voice as earlier.

Suddenly a very tall girl in a very fashionable and simple sweater with a light jean jumper came up on stage with a defeated smile on her face.

“Alright folks, give us a coupla minutes to set up!” Lance said excitedly, walking back to Hunk to grab his mic, while the woman known as “Shay” walked up to his mic stand. She was saying something to the crowd, but Keith was distracted by the buzzing in his pocket. He pulled his phone out and realized it was nearly an hour since he had last heard from Shiro and he hadn’t even realized how much time had passed. The beginning of his text was shown on his screen.

 **“Now don’t freak out--”** it started before being cut off by the screen. Keith quickly tapped in his passcode and read the message in its entirety.

 

 

 

> 10:19PM
> 
> **> Shiro**: Now don’t freak out, but there was an accident on main. I wasn’t in it!! I just stopped to help pull this lady and her kid out of the smashed car and waited with them while the cops and ambulence showed up! I’m fine, kind of tired. Are you still at the bar?

 

“ _Holy shit_!” Keith said a little louder than he'd intended.

  

> 10:20PM
> 
> >To Shiro: HOLY SHIT!!? WHAT? YOu pulled a lady out of a smashed CAR? OMG. Okay ping me ur location! I’ll meet u there. Holy SHIT, SHIRO!!!1

 

Of course Shiro would be held up by saving some person’s life. God. Keith glanced up from his screen, back at the band. Hunk was pulling out another instrument and Shay was talking to him quietly. Keith’s face suddenly burned when he realized Lance’s eyes were on him. Were they? It was dark where he was, and Lance had a bright blue-ish tinted light on him on stage...but Keith could have sworn Lance’s eyes were on him. His heart sped up. Between this and Shiro’s news he was liable to go into cardiac arrest any moment. His phone buzzed again.

 

 

> 10:24PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Are you sure you want to come here? I’m not even that close. I’m near Main and 4th. By that Vietnamese restaurant. I can still meet with you at the bar. Or do you hate it? :(

 

Keith brushed his hair out of his eyes and groaned. This guy. His cousin was irritatingly considerate. Keith grabbed his jacket and started making his way to the exit, shuffling between bodies since the place was utterly packed now. He started typing a reply and left the bar without looking at the stage again. No need to give his heart any _more_ undue stress. He pulled the jacket on as he stood outside of the door and could hear the music starting up again. He walked away wondering what the song was going to be about.

 

+++++++

 

**Sunday, October 11th**

 

Okay. So maybe it _was_ a damned crush.

 

Keith had moved to his couch and was lounging and petting a long-haired black cat with patches of red scattered throughout. He recalled every detail of that night so vividly and realized he was pathetic and hopeless. He pulled the fluffy cat off his stomach and set it back down on the couch where his body warmth had collected. The cat purred as he walked back to his desk and opened up his laptop.

 

 

> **Legacy Bar in Downtown -m4m (Downtown LA)**
> 
> _I met you on Friday night. I was the Asian guy you called “lithe” and you pretended to be my boyfriend to get some jerk to leave me alone, even though I didn’t need your help. You were lanky with a loose teal sweater, dark hair, bronze skin, and really blue eyes. Ridiculously blue. You were the (lead?) singer in the band that night, and I got pulled away before I could catch your whole show. You were very charismatic and had a great voice...and I wish we could have talked some more, Lance._
> 
> _[age: 22]_

  * > do NOT contact me with unsolicited services or offers




Keith read and reread the message; erasing entire sentences only to retype the entire thing, wondering if referring to Lance as bronze was somehow offensive, wondering if referring to himself as Asian was somehow weird, wondering if his message came off as sincere, but not desperate. Was it desperate by default if it was up on this site? He looked for typos and tested his limit for shame and embarrassment. If he died in a freak accident or homicide tomorrow, he wouldn’t cringe from the afterlife _too_ much if someone found this in his online history. It was much less perverted than the majority of posts he’d skimmed through as research, anyway. He tapped his fingers lightly on the edge of his laptop before reading it over one more time.

He hit enter.

 


	2. That Feeling When: Regret and Gun Emoji

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A. Sorry if some of the chats are confusing, the formatting just..isn't letting me do what I want, and I don't know how to fix it. So I hope it's not too confusing.   
> B. Thank you all for your comments and kudos and etc.

**Thursday, October 15th**

 

Keith would  _ forever _ regret his decision to post on “Missed Connections”. He had received sixteen emails in response; all of which sent his heart into a frenzy only to disappoint him on an epic scale. The majority of emails were from people claiming to be at the bar that night and that they had met him. But their details were so far off that Keith wondered how these people had the gall to contact him at all; particularly the ones that zoned in on the fact that he was Asian a little (read:  _ a lot _ ) too excitedly.  _ Creepy fuckers. _

He also received four dick pics with no explanation--aside from the one that said “Remember THIS?”-- and one email claiming to not be a bot and offering him a chance to try and dance his way into a male strip club job. Sure. Not shady _ at all. _

Keith was walking to the corner drug store to pick up something to eat, having not been grocery shopping in...far too long. The prospect of carting groceries on foot or through public transportation was not an idea Keith could tolerate for more than a few seconds. Neither was trying to pack them onto his motorcycle. He’d bug his parents or Shiro in a few days to borrow their car, he’d decided. But for now, it was going to be a stack of ramen from the corner store and veggies from the community garden for the foreseeable future. 

He was texting rapid fire on his phone, complaining to Shiro about the predicament his cousin’s advice had put him in and how he was officially fired as Keith’s unofficial life coach. Another notification popped up on the top of the screen. 

 

> **_3:44PM Email from Craigslist:_ ** _ YourKnight1514 has sent a reply to your posting in the Missed Conn... _

 

Despite being burned every single time before, his heart still skipped a beat. He opened up the reply and saw an image loading. Oh God not again. Please be Lance’s face and not…  _ Another goddamned dick pic!  _ He’d already set a filter to avoid them on his laptop, but he’d forgotten to do the same on his phone and was full of so much regret. He cursed and grumbled the rest of the way to the corner store, texting Shiro again. 

  
  


> 3:46PM
> 
> >To Shiro : Goddamnit Shiro! Another dick pic. This is all ur fault! I’m going to start forwarding them to u so u can suffer as much as I have been!!! >:( 

 

> 3:47PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Lol. No thanks. Listen Keith tbh I thought you knew I was kind of joking when I suggested this idea in the first place. Why would I ever want to subject you, my young impressionable cousin, to weird internet perverts? 

 

Keith was on another plane of existence. His irritation and anger had pushed him clear from his body and he could see his hunched figure, clenching tightly to his phone, his face beet red. He was an anger ghost. Shiro was  _ joking _ ?

 

> 3:49PM
> 
> >To Shiro: That’s it. This relationship is over. I’m disowning you. Forever. What do u MEAN U WERE JOKING?!?!?! YOU DIDN’T SOUND LIKE U WERE JOKING AT ALL. in fact your words were “You should try that missed connections forum.” 
> 
>  
> 
> >To Shiro: “Maybe he’ll be looking for you there.” And ur telling me I put myself through all of this over a JOKE??? 
> 
>  
> 
> >To Shiro: I’ll be showing up at ur house tonight with all ur shit you left at my place because we are done!!!!! I can’t belelieve u!!! OMG.
> 
>  

Keith scratched his cheek where one stray hair had found its way out of his headband,  _ and  _ his hair clips,  _ and  _ his ponytail to torment him personally. Some days he really did want to shave his entire head but he was almost scared of what would be underneath his mop of hair. His phone pinged with a new text and he almost wanted to ignore it because it was just going to be more Perfect Shiro with his Perfect Apology™. 

He walked into the corner store and the bell dinged above him as the door hit it. He nodded to the man behind the counter who merely nodded back without a smile. Five years he had been coming to this store and not once had he seen that man crack the faintest hint of a smile. Not that Keith had a great track record of smiling at strangers either. He didn’t even know the old guy’s name, he just knew that he owned the store. 

Keith walked down the cereal aisle to see if anything was marked down and when his phone pinged again he decided to check his messages from Shiro. 

 

> 3:50PM
> 
>  
> 
> **> Shiro:** I guess I need to work on my facetious tone. To be honest you reacted like you weren’t going to do it anyway and rolled your eyes, so I thought you got that I was joking. I’m sorry. Please don’t disown me. 
> 
>  
> 
> **> Shiro:** Who else will watch my competitive cooking shows with me??? 
> 
>  
> 
> 3:52PM
> 
>  
> 
> **> Shiro:** Keith? Hello??? BFF???? *sad emoji* 
> 
>  
> 
> 3:52PM
> 
>  
> 
> >To Shiro: Just use the actual emoji! There are like 20 different emojis for sad!!!! 

 

> 3:53PM
> 
>  
> 
> **> Shiro:** It’s too complicated. Wait, does this mean you forgive me? :D 

 

Keith had stopped paying attention after he typed out his last text because he heard a voice that was way more familiar than it should have been coming from the next aisle over. He pushed aside two cereal boxes to stick his head in between and see if he was correct in assuming it was who he thought it was, but was praying it wasn’t. Lance. Of _course_ it was Lance. 

“Pidge, how in the  _ heck _ would I know the buoyancy of clam chowder?...No Listen. I don’t know clam chowder or cream of mushroom or beef hearty stew or whatever the heck it’s called. Why are you asking?” Lance was on his cell phone, talking very animatedly with his free hand despite the person on the line not being able to see it. Keith smirked.

Lance’s hair looked somewhat matted down and intermingled with sweat, but still kind of like it was styled like that on purpose. Keith was much more interested in the fact that he was wearing a crop top and that he could see a thick sliver of brown skin between the gray sweatshirt fabric of the crop top and the ridiculous 90s pink, patterned “Hammer” pants (that somehow Lance was making work. What the hell?). His eyes lingered on the skin, almost mesmerized by the beads of sweat that were formed on the arch of Lance’s back before his eyes darted back up to make sure Lance wasn’t noticing him.

“No Pidge!” Lance’s conversation continued as he looked at the different soups in the aisle. Just Keith’s luck, he was standing right in front of the ramen too. “Look I came here for cat food and a quick snack and maybe some….Pidge, if you don’t remember, you were actually banned from any more science experiments at the McClain-McCoy residence after that Cheez Wiz incident. No! No, because Zap was sick for a week after trying to eat as much of it as he could before we cleaned it. There are STILL spots of Cheez Wiz on the ceiling that are forever encrusted. If you do any more experiments you’re paying for the cleaning service  _ and _ the eventual lost security deposit, which is a hefty sum mind you! And vet bills!” 

  
  


> 3:58PM
> 
>  
> 
> >To Shiro: HOLY SHIT. OMG I AM SO DEAD. IOMG SAVE ME. Shit shit shit shit shit! 
> 
>  
> 
> >To Shiro: Why me? Why? I haven’t been a bad person. Not THAT bad anyway. I don’t deserve this!
> 
>  
> 
> 4:00PM
> 
>  
> 
> **> Shiro:** What’s wrong? What happened? Are you okay????

 

> 4:00PM
> 
>  
> 
> >To Shiro: He’s here. THe guy. THEY GUY fROM THE MISSED CONNECTIONS! Og mygod. No. 

 

> 4:01PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Oh. Well isn’t that good? Now you don’t need the site! Go and talk to him? 

 

> 4:01PM
> 
> >To Shiro: Go and talk to him? Go and talk to him. Shiro, lets just put aside how my social skills have always been subpar at best. LET US JUST put that aside for a second. I
> 
>  
> 
> >To Shiro: ’m wearing some of your hand me down blue track pants that are 2 sizes too big with a questionable shirt from the Training and Self Defense center. And to top off this package I have on a headband and ponytail. 
> 
>  
> 
> 4:02PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Why is the shirt questionable? Do your LAUNDRY KEITH! And what’s so bad about your hair? You look fine in a ponytail? 

 

> 4:03PM
> 
> >To Shiro: ...SHIRO. BE SERIOUS. Listen that’s not even the worse part. u know those..joke..clips u bought me for Xmas?

 

> 4:03PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** oh no….

 

> 4:04PM
> 
> >To Shiro: Oh YES Shiro. Oh YES. I am wearing goddamn ladybug clips in my hair because I lost every last one of my bobby pins somehow and I was desperate! 

 

Keith waited impatiently for Shiro to respond, while still spying on Lance from the aisle over. He was still on the phone, picking up random cans of soup and looking at them before putting them back down. 

“Listen Pidge, you have a garage full of stuff to ruin, why not….well it’s not my fault you decided to get into music and put all your equipment in there!” Keith tore himself away from the one-sided conversation he was completely eavesdropping in on as his phone pinged again and he ducked behind a cereal box. 

 

> 4:05PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Okay, listen, you are probably making it a lot worse than it is. You probably look fine. You’re just caught off guard. What’s going on now? 
> 
>  
> 
> 4:06PM
> 
> >To Shiro:  I’m spying on him btwn a box of Honey Smacks and a box of Fruit Loops. He’s wearing a crop top. Ohman. I haven’t showered in like 2 days and I probably smell and my face is kinda gross because I haven’t washed it since I went out to meet u at that bar. 
> 
>  
> 
> 4:08PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** First of all, stop stalking him. Don’t be creepy! Second of all I am so telling your mom you’re not using that special face wash she bought you and that your hygiene in general is terrible wth. 
> 
> **> Shiro:** Third of all. Just. Go. Say. Hi. You’re just making it worse by standing around spying on him! Fourth, Honey Smacks? Hey buy those for me. I’ll pay you back. I haven’t even seen those in forever. 

 

> 4:08PM
> 
> >To Shiro: That’s because HONEY SMACKS ARE THE WORST, and ur the worst. Cousin. So I guess you and Honey SMacks Belong together! D:<
> 
>  
> 
> 4:09PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Don’t talk smack about Honey Smacks. And I know you don’t mean that, so I forgive you for your unwarranted hostility against me AND Honey Smacks. Pls buy them, I’m serious. Also go get him before he walks out of your life forever again! 

 

Shiro had texted on cue as Lance was still arguing over the phone and walking a bit more down the aisle he was in. Keith pulled back from the shelves, bringing five or more boxes of cereal with him. 

“Shit!” He let out a whispered shout and looked over to the store owner, who was staring at him with utter dismay. He wondered if he had been watching him this whole time, spying on another customer. They weren’t going to be exchanging Christmas cards anytime soon. 

He quickly picked up the boxes and put them back roughly in the same places they had been, except for the box of Honey Smacks he clutched to his chest like a child he was trying to protect. He took a few long breaths and tried to nonchalantly walk into the next aisle where Lance was still too involved in his phone call to have heard the small disturbance Keith had caused. 

“Nah. He said to tell you he was going to be staying at his boyfriend’s house tonight. I don’t know Pidge. Text him if you’re so curious. I don’t ask Matt all the details of his days. Especially when we’re shooting hoops.” Keith just noticed the cat food that Lance had been slowly pushing along with his foot as he moved down the aisle. He was facing boxes of pasta and bags of rice, examining them curiously while he listened to his friend. Keith glanced at him quickly then to the Ramen section. Chicken and Shrimp Flavors only. Great. He grabbed a stack of shrimp packages and stacked them on top of the horizontal cereal box. He could feel his phone buzzing in his pocket.  _ Shut up, Shiro _ . This was definitely still all his fault. Nonetheless, he slowly lowered one hand to his pocket and tried to grab the phone. He should have known that what happened next was inevitable.

Keith watched, horror-stricken as everything in his arms fell to the floor, including his phone. If he broke another screen he was going to be  _ so _ pissed and his parents and Shiro both would never let him hear the end of it. He scrambled to his knees and started swiping the ramen packages on the floor into a pile as quickly as humanly possible. 

“Shit! Damn, damn hell,” he said in a strained whisper.

“You need help there, buddy?” He heard Lance from behind him. Great. Great and good and  _ fantastic _ . 

“No I think I got it,” Keith said nervously, hating the trembles he heard in his own voice. What was his deal? He wasn’t a teenager, for crying out loud! 

“Oh, I think you missed one,” he heard Lance say from behind. Keith glanced back quickly, seeing the ramen pack in question and reached for it so fast that his foot had to shift to hold his weight and he kicked his phone away, under a shelf. He heard a slight chuckle and felt his face heat up to boiling. How could he make this worse? Maybe his baggy pants could just fall down around his ankles when he stood up to complete the Ultimate Loser Effect. He groaned and pulled all of the packages and the cereal back into his arms and stood up. When he turned around Lance was standing with his phone held out to him. 

“Here ya go,” Lance said. Keith averted his gaze from his face entirely and focused on the phone in Lance’s hand before grabbing it.

“Thanks,” Keith muttered. He sighed when he noticed the screen wasn’t cracked. At least one thing wasn’t going horribly.

“Hey. I know you,” Lance said suddenly. Finally, Keith forced himself to look at Lance face to face. He was wearing another one of his patented genuine smiles that Keith felt attacked by. You can’t just go around smiling like that. You just  _ can’t _ ! Keith’s words got lost in his throat as he tried to respond to Lance’s words. Lance put his phone to his ear real quick.

“Just gimme another minute, Pidge. Fine then, hang up. You called me! Well then just give me another minute!” Keith studied Lance’s face as he spoke. His expression dropped slightly as he spoke on the phone, he looked a bit more tired and irritated when he spoke with Pidge. 

His eyes were still the deep blue that Keith remembered, but in the light of day and up close, Keith could see his face more clearly. There were a few small scars: one on his chin, one on the curve of his cheek below his left eye. Also, his skin was peppered with very light freckles that stretched from one cheek, over his nose, to the other. Somehow that gave his face a softer look. They were kind of endearing. 

“Boyfriend, right?” Lance finally said, speaking to Keith again. Keith swallowed hard, suddenly shaken by his attention. 

“Uh. What?” Keith said, his brows furrowed involuntarily. 

“From the bar. I pretended to be your boyfriend! That was you, right?” Lance asked with an eyebrow raised in curiosity and an amused look about him. Keith cleared his throat.

“Um. Oh yeah. That was me. Hey,” Keith said, shuffling the items in his arms awkwardly. 

“Hi. Do you need a hand?” Lance asked, his eyes glancing towards the items in Keith’s arms. Keith shook his head. 

“Nope. I got it. Thanks,” he said curtly. He knew he sounded a little rude, but honestly he preferred it over the alternative: blurting out everything he’d been ruminating over for the past week in a very embarrassing and succinct manner.  _ Kiss me. Date Me. Marry me _ .

Keith’s phone buzzed again and he knew it was Shiro checking up on him. He lifted it to check and almost dropped everything again. Lance seemed like he was ready to lunge forward in an instant to aid him until he settled the items again. Lance smiled, but it was different than the ones Keith had witnessed before. 

“Alright, well, take care. See you around,” Lance said with a friendly nod, and then went back to his bag of cat food on the ground and to the phone that had been held face down on his shoulder for the past minute. 

“Yeah. You too,” Keith muttered after him. He looked at his phone. 

 

> 4:10PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Keep me updated Keith! I have to go into a meeting soon, but I can’t be distracted. I need to know how things went down!
> 
>  
> 
> 4:15PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Keith, are you ignoring me? Ooo, or are you busy chatting up the guy? I hope it’s the latter. Because ignoring me is rude and uncalled for. 
> 
>  
> 
> **> Shiro:** Keith. Um hello? What’s happening? Are you hitting it off? Are you alive? Listen I just need to know if I need to set an extra place at the next family gathering, which is in a week, by the way. 
> 
>  
> 
> 4:17PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Keith pls!!!! *frowny face*

 

Keith almost felt like crying at the texts. Not only had he definitely not even attempted to talk to this guy that he was perfectly willing to try and contact online, but he looked like a rude-idiot-slob in front of him. 

 

> 4:18PM
> 
> >To Shiro: Just. Use. The. Emojis. Anyway, no extra place setting. No nothing. I choked. 

 

> 4:19PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** What’s he doing now? Maybe you can “bump into him” again somewhere else in the store and strike up a conversation? Hmm? 

 

> 4:19PM
> 
> >To Shiro: Forget it Shiro. I’ve built him up way too much in my head. I can’t calm down enough to talk to him. I think I ruined everything!!!! I am miserable and will be alone forEVER. He was trying to be nice to me and I blew him off! Why am I like this??????? UGH. u should be disowning ME. 
> 
>  
> 
> 4:21PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Because you have trouble talking with people? That’s a silly reason to disown someone. Listen, if you don’t feel good about it, don’t do it. I shouldn’t have pressured you. Sorry about all those texts. And don’t beat yourself up. These things happen. Listen, I can come over tonight after this meeting is done. Would that be alright? 

 

"These things happen". Hollow words coming from someone who these things never happen to. But still, Keith felt slightly better because of Shiro’s sincerity. 

 

> 4:22PM
> 
> >To Shiro: Yeah. Come over. Besides i need you to pick up ur shitty Honey smacks! 
> 
>  
> 
> 4:23PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** !!!!! You’re buying them for me??? Best. Cousin. Ever.  <3<3

 

> 4:23PM
> 
> >To Shiro: That’d mean more if I wasn’t your only cousin, but I’ll take what I can get today.
> 
>  

Keith pocketed his phone with a slight smile. As much as he liked to bicker and push Shiro’s buttons, he was ultimately grateful for him. Keith wasn’t good at talking to people or making friends. He was prone to angry emotional outbursts when he was overwhelmed, and he was very reserved often when others felt it was appropriate for more emotion. 

He could not have been blessed with a kinder, more patient person in his life that was willing to jump through hoops to cheer him up or help him with any issue he might need at any given time. He was hit with a sudden wave of emotion and he felt he better go home before he had some kind of breakdown in this store and was barred for life by the disgruntled owner. 

Keith walked up the aisle towards the front of the store, his eyes lingering on the snack aisle for a moment before deciding against it. He was wandering to the counter where Lance had placed his items.

“Okay I’m at the counter, see you soon. Bye,” Lance was saying into his phone. He put the phone away and smiled at the owner. “Mr. Joo! How’s it hanging? Haven’t seen you lately. How’s the wife?” Keith stopped in his tracks as he witnessed the impossible. The owner smiled. Not only that, but he laughed too. 

“Good to see you, Lance! Grace is good. My mother was ill. Had to stay home to take care of her. Simon was running the store. Did he give you a hard time?” The man said cheerfully. 

“No, Sir. Simon’s cool. Sorry about your mom. She better now?” Lance put a pack of gum onto the counter in addition to his other items that the owner was ringing up. 

“Yes. Much better. Thank you,” the man answered with a fond smile. Keith was slowly trudging up to the line, mouth agape. 

Did Lance just have this effect on everyone he came into contact with? Keith wanted to ask him so many questions. Like how did he get the store owner--Mr. Joo, apparently-- to open up and not be such a hardass? How? Instead, he just continued staring with wide eyes and open mouth.

The owner finished ringing up Lance, who was paying with a bunch of dirty crumpled bills and change that he produced from some hidden pocket in his unreal poofy pants. He threw all the extra pennies into the “take a penny, leave a penny” dish sitting on the counter. Mr. Joo chuckled and took the money and bagged Lance’s items. 

“Alright, I’m out Mr. Joo. Tell Soo hey for me!” Lance said with a finger gun in his direction. Mr. Joo nodded and laughed again. 

“See you again, Lance!” Mr. Joo said with a small wave goodbye. As soon as he looked at his next customer, his usual grimace returned. Lance glanced over to Keith and smiled at him again and Keith felt his heart jump up into his chest. His face twisted in his surprise.

“Cute clips, by the way,” Lance said, his smile growing to take up the majority of his face again. Red, red, red all over. Keith knew it. He could feel the heat gathering over every surface in his body. He had no idea if Lance was teasing him or serious, but the fact that he had forgotten about them and was now reminded that his hair was adorned with ladybug clips in front of this guy was enough to spike his embarrassment meter to dangerous levels.

“Thanks?” Keith said it like it was more of a question.

“See you around,” Lance said again and the bell dinged as the door opened and he left. Keith watched him walk down the street about a yard and stop in front of a red and white Honda Ruckus. He started stuffing his belongings into a backpack that was attached to it and pulled a blue sparkling helmet off one of the handles and started strapping it to his head. Keith’s shoulders slumped. Lance rode a Ruckus? This guy was full of surprises. As Lance mounted his scooter Keith finally turned back to the store owner who had already finished ringing up his ramen and cereal and was raising a disapproving eyebrow at Keith. Keith sighed and pulled out his wallet without saying another word. 

 

+++++++

 

“Well that’s not too bad? He liked the ladybugs,” Shiro was sitting back on Keith’s sofa with a can of beer in one hand. He offered a comforting smile to Keith, but it wasn’t really doing its job.

“I think he was making fun of me. I don’t know,” Keith mumbled into his palm. He was huddled on the other side of the sofa with his back in the armrest and his arms crossed, one hand to cover his face as he retold the entire thing to Shiro, reliving each embarrassing moment. 

“Or maybe he just thought they were cute. Who knows? Didn’t you say he was wearing parachute pants or something?” Shiro raised a questionable eyebrow. Keith flushed under the judgmental look.

“Look, he made them work. Okay? But whatever, it doesn’t matter. I can’t believe I acted that way. It’s not like me. I hate it,” Keith grumbled. He was on his second can of beer, and he just took the final sip. Not that it was doing much for him at the moment. He’d need a whole case to drown today’s sorrows.  

“So are you going to take that posting down?” Shiro asked. Keith sighed again.

“Probably? I mean what’s the point. If he reads it now, it would be embarrassing. Plus I had a chance to actually talk to him and I blew it. So yeah. I guess,” Keith looked over at his laptop, feeling too lazy to go over and actually open it. 

“Hey, you were taken by surprise. I wish you wouldn’t beat yourself up about it,” Shiro said, swishing around his nearly empty can. 

“Well, when was the last time you saw me tongue-tied because of some guy?” Keith raised his eyes to Shiro’s and waited for an answer as Shiro looked at him thoughtfully. 

“Hm, well what about your first boyfriend? What was his name? Corey Something?” 

“That’s different. I was a teenager and stupid. I’m talking about, since I’ve been a mostly reasonable adult, when have I behaved that way?” 

“Um, well I mean your last boyfriend technically wasn’t since you were 18? So, this is a hard question to answer. But honestly? I think you’re behaving...normally. For you, um,” Shiro was struggling to say the right words, even more so when he saw the indignant look on Keith’s face. 

“Don’t get mad. I just mean, you have emotional issues you’re working through. You have some social awkwardness to deal with on top of that. You are kind of  _ rusty _ I guess is the word I’d use. So all of that put together might equal what happened to you today. So maybe normally, no, I don’t see you as a self-conscious person. You’re actually very sure of yourself most of the time. But when you pile things on, I’ve seen you react worse with less.” Shiro had finished his piece and stood to stretch. 

Keith watched him go into the kitchen and tidy up a few things after he threw his can into the recycling bin. Keith sighed, crumpling his own can in his hand. How did Shiro get all the wisdom in this family? It was like he had a guide book on Keith that even Keith never had a glance at. It was as infuriating as it was helpful in times like these. Keith wanted to figure things out for himself. He didn’t want to rely on Shiro forever. He pulled his knees up to his chin and continued watching Shiro straighten up the kitchen, grimacing at some of the mess he came across. 

He had already been threatened with losing Shiro once when they were younger, and still Keith somehow managed to take his presence for granted more often than not. It wasn’t intentional. Keith had just skated through the first half of his life so far as some kind of prodigy. School was easy. He passed his classes without even trying. He didn’t retain a lot of the knowledge when it was no longer necessary, but he essentially worked the system so that he was never below a 3.5 grade average. 

By high school Keith was bored. He was bored of following rules and bored of playing the same game he’d been playing since the fourth grade. Corey, as Shiro had so wonderfully pointed out, was Keith’s first boyfriend. He introduced Keith to a world outside of school that he had never realized was even there. He got Keith into motorcycles. He indirectly set Keith on the path that led him to quitting school--much to his family’s disappointment-- and working full time as a mechanic; which in turn led him to his current work on specialized bikes and restoring classics. 

Once his parents had found out he could eke out a decent living off of what they had previously considered a frivolous hobby, they begrudgingly accepted his choices. Shiro was the one who made him get his GED “just in case”. Because Shiro saw the big picture. He had big ideas and big plans and he saw big potential in his younger cousin that he didn’t quite think he was living up to. He never said it, but Keith could read between the lines. Even so, he supported Keith’s endeavours and supported him whenever they happened to fail. 

Ultimately, Keith had no idea what he was doing. His life was fine as is, for now. There was always the worry that he would get bored again, but that it would be too late, that he’d be too old to pursue a dream too late discovered. 

Sometimes he felt like he was running out of time. When he found out through Facebook that kids from school were already getting married and a few were even having kids, he deactivated his account and never looked back. It was scary to think that someone his age had any part of their lives together when he was much more of a “do what feels right at the time” kind of individual; that system lacked a very sturdy foundation for a future. At least he could be sure that wherever it led him, Shiro would be behind him, cheering him on and offering any support he could. 

He begrudgingly accepted the fact that Shiro was, of course, right. Any minor turbulence with his emotions set him completely off kilter. He had been happily single for the past few years, even with the occasional bout of loneliness. But that’s why he got a cat. Romantic feelings just complicated things, especially unreciprocated ones. 

He tried to physically shake off his insecurities by shaking out his limbs as he stood from the couch and stretched. He walked to his small kitchen and tossed his can into the recycling bin. Shiro was wiping off the counter. 

“I don’t know why you had so many dishes sitting around. You have a dishwasher, Keith. Please stop being so lazy,” Shiro grumbled and started the dishwasher for him. Keith shrugged, even if he felt a pang of guilt. 

“I’ll do a major cleaning soon. You know how I get,” Keith said with a slight yawn. It was almost 11PM. Time wasn’t an issue most of the time, but feeling things apparently took a lot out of Keith.

“I need to get going. Sorry I got here so late. I know we didn’t have much time to hang out. Work’s been very intense lately. Good, but still intense.” Shiro tossed the dishrag onto the counter and turned around to look at Keith. Keith was staring vacantly out of his kitchen window. 

“I’m open tomorrow night, for sure this time. I can pick you up. You interested in a redo of last week? Done right this time? My treat obviously,” Shiro said with a hint of sly smile. He knew “my treat” were the magic words to unlock Keith’s participation. Keith’s eyes grew wide with anticipation.

“I’m going to be at the studio with a class until 5. So I’ll be home around 5:30-6,” Keith said to him. 

“So pick you up around 8?” Shiro asked. Shiro picked up the Honey Smacks from the counter and tucked them under his arm. Keith nodded to confirm and walked Shiro to his door. 

“And listen, seriously, don’t beat yourself up. Who knows how anyone else would have reacted in the same situation, you know?” Keith smiled and rolled his eyes.

“Should I copy-paste your texts back to you? You gave me valid advice and I took none of it. But,” Keith opened his door and looked back at his laptop before looking at Shiro again. “I think I’m just going to delete that post and try and forget this whole thing. It was a really stupid..mistake,” Keith said, offering a smile to his large cousin. Shiro returned a lopsided smile and pulled Keith in for a quick hug good-bye. 

“Alright. See you tomorrow then,” Shiro said with a quick wave before he walked through the door. Keith watched him walk down the balcony walkway to the stairs to the parking lot and get into his car before he closed his door and locked it. He walked to his desk, opened his laptop and turned it on. He was yawning again, slightly taken aback by how tired he felt. He’d fallen into a routine of four hours max of sleep years ago. He hadn’t gone to bed before 1AM in who knows how long. Keith walked to his couch and laid down on it dramatically while he waited for it to load. Suddenly a cat was on him. 

“Hey, Ruby,” Keith said lazily, petting the cat that was already kneading on his chest and purring loudly. He scratched her behind the ears softly. The motion made him sleepier somehow and he ended up dozing off. 

 

+++++++

 

**Friday, October 16th**

 

Keith stirred, hearing his phone chime for a new email message. He wiped his eyes with one hand and looked around for his phone. It was on his desk with his laptop that was now on standby. Keith groaned pathetically at the distance. 

“Ruby,  _ fetch _ !” He mumbled at the sleeping cat on his chest. The cat chirped in response but made no indication she intended to move at all. Keith sighed and sat up, holding the cat against him as he did so. She purred in his arms as he walked to the desk to check his phone. 

>  
> 
> **_12:34AM Email from Craigslist:_ ** _ UrBoyfriend247 has sent a reply to your posting in the Missed Conn... _

 

Keith tensed immediately. “Boyfriend” is what Lance had called him when they bumped into each other earlier that day. It could be a big coincidence. It was probably a common moniker. Still, Keith stared at his phone for a minute, trying to collect himself. It was probably just another stupid dick pic and he was getting himself worked up over nothing, for the 20th time. He sighed and typed in his passcode and opened up the email.

 

> _ Hey,  _
> 
> _ I remember you. I was picking up drinks for my friends, I helped you out with that blonde dude and casually complimented your muscles, right? You were wearing a red and white striped sweater? I was actually going to ask you to sit with my friends, but you said you were waiting for a date so I left you alone. Um.  _
> 
>  
> 
> _ Also today you bumped into me at that corner store in Koreatown and your hair was up and I told you I liked your ladybug clips. Sound familiar?  _
> 
>  
> 
> _ If not, sorry to bother you.  _
> 
> _ Lance _

Keith felt a chill run up his spine and he threw his phone at his couch as if it had caught fire. Shit and hell. What the hell was he supposed to do now? What the hell? Why did he not think anything through? He put his cat down and started pacing the small space of his living room wildly with his arms crossed against his chest and his shoulders slumped. 

“What do I do? Should I reply?” He muttered to himself. His cat jumped onto his desk and stared at him curiously. “I can text Shiro? No. I don’t want to bug him with this anymore. Plus I told him I was deleting that…” Keith stopped himself from speaking, staring at his cat. He was officially one of those people that had full-on conversations with their pets. He grumbled and sat down in his desk chair, logged onto his laptop and opened up the browser. 

He stared at the blank response box for several minutes. Mostly he was in disbelief that he had gotten a response at all with how he had behaved at the store. He swallowed hard about ten times before he finally put his fingers to the keyboard. 

 

> _ Hi Lance, _
> 
> _ Um, yeah that’s me. My name is Keith, by the way. Sorry about how I acted at the sto _

* * *

 

> _ Hi Lance, _
> 
> _ Yeah, that’s me. I’m Keith. I was a total mess at the store today so I’m actually surprised you’re writi _

* * *

 

> _ Hi Lance, _
> 
> _ Yeah, it’s me. I’m Keith. I wasn’t waiting for a date. I was waiting for my cousin. I wouldn’t have made this ridiculous post otherw _

* * *

> _ Hi Lance, _
> 
> _ Yeah, that’s me alright. My name’s Keith. Were you making fun of my clips or did you really like them?  _
> 
> _ PS/ I was not waiting for a date. I was waiting for my cousin. _

 

Keith hit send before he could rewrite the thing ten more times. He didn’t have a clue what to say, but since he wasn’t at all personable earlier, he hoped he could make up for it with some idle chatter. His heart was doing some impressive somersaults in his chest and he felt a tightness in it. He literally could not remember feeling this nervous since he heard about Shiro’s accident when he was seven years old. He heard his phone’s email notification ping from the couch and practically broke his touchpad as he refreshed his email. 

 

> _ Hey Keith, _
> 
> _ Yes. I genuinely liked your clips. I told my friends about them like twenty times because they were just that cute.  _
> 
>  
> 
> _ Also, good to know about you not being on a date, because I was hoping we could possibly meet up tomorrow. Around 7? Somewhere public obviously. I know we’ve met, but still. Stranger Danger and all of that. Let me know if that works for you, if not, let me know if another day might work instead. _

 

Keith absently put his hand to the clips in his hair, smiling and blushing and a thousand percent relieved this was not a face to face chat. He tried to hold on to the feeling. If he was telling his friends about his clips, then that must mean he was interested in him too? To bring him up to other people? Plus that thing he said about it being good he wasn’t on a date. Definitely interested? Right? 

Keith looked to Ruby as if she could read his mind and answer his question. She merely chirped and held her paw out to him. Keith scratched her neck and head on command and thought over a reply. He was feeling slightly more confident suddenly. Yeah. He could definitely meet this guy in a public place. For coffee maybe? 

If they met at seven, that would give him enough time to run home and clean up after his studio session and then still meet Shiro afterwards. Worse case scenario, he would have to push back meeting with Shiro a little bit. Something was stirring in his stomach and it was spreading throughout his body. A calmness he wished he’d possessed earlier in the day. But tomorrow he wouldn’t be caught off guard again. He was going to look fucking... _ dazzling _ . Even if that wasn’t an area he was familiar with. He’d use that soap his mom bought for him, too. 

 

> _ Lance,  _
> 
> _ I have something I can’t get out of that ends at 6. Depending on where we meet, I could get definitely meet with you around seven. What did you have in mind?  _
> 
>  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is super fun to write for me. That being said, I'm still searching the voices of the characters in this setting, so if it's a little off right now, I apologize.   
> Not 100% sure where this story is going to end up! 
> 
> Anyway, Hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	3. That Feeling When: Someone is a Total Shrek

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates might slow down since I'm starting a new job tomorrow, and I don't know how much my schedule will be filled after that. But I also have already started on the next chapter, so it all depends on mood and tiredness I suppose. Just thought I'd let you guys know!
> 
> Oh, some tags updated. Nothing major! :)

**Friday, October 16th**

 

The last time Keith had spent longer than one minute picking out the right clothes to wear was on his first day of junior high. He had picked out the perfect band shirt (a vintage, electric orange with “The Clash” written in Japanese on it beneath the band’s name in English. Very likely a bootleg, but still old and cool looking if you had asked twelve-year-old Keith) from his dad’s old clothes that were stored away in a box in his closet. He matched it with a pair of mostly-new black jeans and red and white high tops that he had saved several months allowance to help his mom pay for them when it was time to go shopping for school clothes.

Keith grimaced at his lack of selection as his twenty-two-year-old self. He probably had less clothes than he did as that twelve-year-old. He’d been looking into his closet for at least ten minutes and nothing looked halfway decent. The nicest thing he owned was probably that sweater he was wearing when he met Lance, so it probably wouldn’t leave the best impression if he wore it again. Not that he’d washed it yet anyway. It was somewhere in the pile of dirty clothes that were on the floor of Keith’s closet.

They were meeting at a cafe not _too_ far from his place and he didn’t want to overdress, but he definitely wanted to leave an impression. He’d showered and run a comb through his hair and all that was left to find something, anything, that would make him look good enough to make Lance as tongue-tied as Lance made him. Yeah right. Honestly, he just needed to look presentable enough to keep Lance from turning around and leaving as soon as he saw him. He suddenly remembered some clothes stored away in his hall closet and bolted from his room.

He quickly pulled a box down from a high shelf in the hall closet, nearly smashing his toes in the process. Digging through it was like going through a time capsule of bad decisions and defining life events. He sifted through some really questionable clothing, finding the electric orange shirt he’d stolen from his father so many years ago. He grimaced, holding it up and realizing it might be a tad tighter and shorter, but would probably still fit him pretty decently. He threw the shirt to the edge of the box.

The only nicer shirts he had were ones he had worn to forced engagements (weddings, funerals, the like) and all probably too wrinkled and tight. He was pretty sure he didn’t even own an iron. Keith stared bitterly into the box as though it had betrayed him on a very personal level. He sighed and stood, stuffing the box back into its place in the hall closet and shutting the door in defeat. He was almost ready to grab the sweater and just go to town on it with some Febreze when he stopped himself and sat on his bed instead. He picked up his phone and opened up his texts.

 

 

 

> 6:08PM
> 
> >To Shiro: Tell me what to wear…

 

Keith laid back on his bed, trying to chill out. He was an absolute fifty-fifty mixture of excitement and anxiety. Whenever a warm happy feeling crept over him, it would be immediately followed by dread. Whenever he thought of all the things that could go wrong, he was flooded with ideas of how things could go right. For the probably thousandth time within the past week, Keith grumbled at how tiring feelings were.

 

 

> 6:10PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** What? For tonight? Why?

 

 

 

> 6:10PM
> 
> >To Shiro: Just...tell me what to wear

 

 

 

> 6:11PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Contrary to what you believe I haven’t memorized every article of clothing you own. Just don’t wear anything smelly or with holes in it.

 

 

 

> 6:12PM
> 
> >To Shiro: Ur the worst consultant. Fired.

 

 

 

> 6:12PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** I’m just confused as to why you’re asking me? You never care. Neither do I. Just wear what you wore last week. IDC.

 

 

 

> 6:13PM
> 
> >To Shiro: I can’t!! UGH. Some help. Why don’t u know if I own anything nice???

 

 

 

> 6:14PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** ...Okay what’s going on?

 

 

 

> 6:15PM
> 
> >To Shiro: Nothing

 

 

 

> 6:15PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Keith

 

 

 

> 6:16PM
> 
> >To Shiro: I don’t have time to tell u. I will tell you later when we meet

  

 

> 6:17PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** ….okay. Anyway...you never did wear that nice gingham shirt I bought you for your birthday.
> 
> **> Shiro:** Unless you secretly treasure it and wear it all the time when I’m not around..

 

Keith sat straight up in his bed. The plaid shirt! That wasn’t too fancy or too casual. It was nice (and fresh since he’d never worn it). He jumped from his bed and went to a dresser in the corner of the room and dug through the mess of clothing he'd hidden away to pull out the folded black and red plaid shirt. It had creases but so far it was the winning option. He quickly pulled on a black t-shirt and the black skinny jeans he owned that almost made it look like he had an ass to show off. He picked up his phone.

 

 

> 6:20PM
> 
> >To Shiro: Ur a genius. Bless u

 

 

 

> 6:21PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Lol. Thanks? Can’t wait to hear whatever the heck this is about.

 

Keith noticed the time. He knew he needed to leave soon to get there a little early and case the cafe for a seat with a good view of the entrance. He pulled on his black Palladium boots and grabbed the plaid shirt, shaking it out slightly. He pulled it on and deliberated whether he should leave it buttoned or not. His voice at the back of his mind continually harassed him that he shouldn’t care and DID he even care and why oh why was he making such a big deal out of _clothes_ of all things? He fought the urge to cave into the voice. It was the reason he hadn’t dated in four years in the first place.

He fixed the collar and ultimately decided the shirt looked better unbuttoned. He grabbed his keys, wallet and leather jacket and ducked out his front doorway, checking the time on his phone compulsively every ten seconds. It was one of October’s warmer evenings. The sun had just set and there was a thin purple line on the horizon beneath the blackened sky. He thought twice about the jacket but he wasn’t going back inside. He’d be too tempted to cancel this entire meeting. He just tucked it under his arm and walked at a slightly faster-than-normal gait all the way to the bus stop.

+++++++

Much to the irritation of the barista, Keith ordered only a hot water with lemon when he got to the cafe. He was already too wired for coffee, and he didn’t want to be eating when Lance arrived. That seemed kind of tacky, and with his luck, he’d wind up with food stuck in his teeth or smudged all over his face. The risk was not worth it and frankly he wasn’t sure if he could keep anything down with how his anxiety was being taken out on his stomach. The cafe was relatively empty. Keith only somewhat knew the area where they were meeting but figured it was going to pick up in an hour or two. Seven was not really a Friday night prime time.

He sat with his back against the wall with a direct view of the entrance as well as the majority of the sidewalks outside. He took out his phone to play a game while he waited so he wouldn’t be scanning the sidewalk obsessively, but he ended up only holding his phone and mindlessly swiping at the screen while his eyes would flit up at any body that came into his line of sight.

The barista dropped his water off at his table and he sipped at it casually as he closed out his game and decided to check Instagram. He rarely remembered to since he only followed about five cat accounts and Shiro. Shiro mostly posted boring things like the sky, and sometimes things he was allowed to show from work. Keith looked at a piece of technology and read Shiro’s paragraph-long caption on the innovation behind it. He didn’t fully understand everything but he was still impressed at Shiro’s part in all of it.

He was musing over it and had forgotten to scan the area and nearly knocked his water off the table when he heard someone say his name. It wasn’t a voice he recognized at all and when he looked up he stared at the person for a few seconds before it registered that he had seen them before. It was the small person from the bar. Pidge? His eyes widened and his heart dropped down into his stomach and his limbs practically went numb. Oh god no. He was being pranked on. This date was a prank. Or he was being catfished. He wasn’t exactly sure what catfishing was, but he knew it involved people on the internet pretending to be other people.

“You’re Keith, right?” Pidge asked him.

Keith couldn’t discern their expression, but they didn’t look amused or malicious. That didn't stop him from internally freaking out. He reflexively stood up from his booth seat, hitting against the table and nearly knocking it and the teacup over.

Pidge was waving their hands around wildly.

“Wait wait wait wait! Please listen before you go. Please!” Pidge sounded somewhat frantic suddenly. “I mean I know what I did was shitty, but it was sorta for a noble cause?” They added. Keith’s fists clenched as he stood and stared at this person. He was not getting instinctively bad vibes off of them and decided to hear them out before he made any rash decisions. Slowly, he sat back in his seat. Pidge smiled lightly and took the seat across from him.

“How do you know who I am?” Keith asked cautiously, giving Pidge a once over. They were wearing a buttoned up multi-colored plaid shirt and jeans and sneakers. Their hair was the same perfect nest of chestnut from the previous week.

“Are you kidding? Lance described you to a T. The only thing he got wrong was your eye color. But to give him credit, the bar was dark.” Pidge leaned back in their chair and slung an arm over the backrest, their small frame not even fitting into the entirety of the cafe chair. But they definitely looked relaxed. Keith merely blinked, sure his expression was as blatantly confused as he felt.

“Described me? What are you talking about? How...okay. Actually, start from the beginning before I walk out right now,” Keith said, feeling the familiar burning anger rumbling in his chest and replacing any anxiety he was feeling.

“Okay! Okay. So the thing is, Lance is totally into you. He talked about you the night he met you. He said you were the hottest guy he’d seen ‘in like, forever’--his words by the way-- which I shouldn’t be telling you at all, but I actually don’t give a shit, since I kind of brought you here under false pretenses,” Pidge grinned casually as Keith felt the heat making the slow crawl up his neck and over his face. “Anyway, he was kinda bummed since he thought you were taken and couldn’t ‘put the moves on you’, which honestly was probably better for everyone. But he had described you to us and that was kind of it. Until yesterday when he bumped into you again.” Pidge raised an eyebrow at Keith to confirm that’s what happened. Keith swallowed and nodded.

“Well, he whined for like an hour. A whole fucking hour, Keith. About how bad he looked and how bad he probably smelled after coming off a basketball game or some shit. I kind of half zone out when he gets like that, you know? Well I guess you don’t know. But anyway, he droned on about how he was all over you and being a douchey creep and you just wanted him to leave you alone and he couldn’t help himself from talking to you. He’s like that, though,” Pidge paused, noticing Keith’s utterly confused expression. “That _is_ what happened right?” Keith shook his head slightly, his eyes staring at the lemon in his now lukewarm water.

“I mean...he wasn’t being annoying? I was being kind of rude, honestly. He was being nice to me. And he looked…” Keith stopped himself from giving an overly indulgent compliment. “Uh. Fine.” Pidge smirked and continued.

“Well, whatever happened, he described you all over again, your ladybug clips and how cute you looked with your hair tied back like that. I don’t know. Honestly, he was so gross with all his pining. _But_ , it did give me an idea.” Pidge said, straightening up in the chair. “I go on Missed Connections like once a month. Usually after a show. You’d be surprised how many girls like to confess their love for me that way,” Pidge said, not a hint of bragging in their voice, though their lips did curl into a slightly mischievous grin. Keith felt the corners of his mouth pull up in response. This person was certainly something else. But he was definitely more focused on the information about Lance’s view on him because it did not match up at all with his version of their encounter. Frankly, he was floored at how wrong Lance had gotten it.  
“Well I decided to just check the posts for L.A. plus cross reference it with any mention of Legendary to save me some time,” Pidge explained.

“You can _do_ that?” Keith asked in surprise.

“Well, _I_ can,” that was definitely a brag. “But anyway, there _were_ a few for me, but my main reason for even hitting up the forum was to check the men for men posts. And wouldn’t you like to know what I found…” Pidge stopped, their grin widening. Keith suddenly looked horror-stricken.

“Don’t judge me. I don’t usually do that. In fact, I’ve never done it. And it wasn’t my idea. In fact, it wasn’t even a real idea. My cousin...he played a trick on me,” Keith couldn’t help over-explaining his reasons behind using the forum. Pidge let out a light laugh.

“Dude, I just told you I scroll the forum occasionally. But, that is kind of why I...tricked you. I had to make sure you weren’t some creep going after my friend, ya know? Because honestly there’s like a fifty-fifty chance you’re going to be some pervy weirdo.” Pidge’s expression turned somewhat sincere. Keith’s face flared up again. There was a mixture of indignation in his emotion, but it was mixed with endearment that Lance’s friend would go through the trouble for him.

“So he doesn’t know you’re here?” Keith heard the disappointment in his voice. Now that the anger and embarrassment and confusion died down, the disappointment that he wasn’t actually sitting here having a conversation with Lance was sinking in.

“That’s where the plot thickens,” Pidge said, their wicked grin returning. “So I don’t know what your plans are for tonight. We’re all meeting up. Lance, Hunk and Shay and Allura. If you want to join us, that’d be cool. I mean we’d have to be sneaky about it. Lance can’t know it’s a setup. His pride would get in the way. But if we were to _‘bump into you’_ again, he wouldn’t be able to resist chatting you up.” Keith sat back in his seat and half-grimaced.

“I don’t like the idea of tricking him,” Keith said solemnly.

“Well, I mean it’s totally up to you if you do want to hang with us. I guess we could tell him how we met, but it might make things complicated or embarrass him somehow. His ego is large and fragile,” Pidge said, absently tapping their fingers on the table. Keith’s face scrunched up in disapproval. This was all becoming far too complicated.

“I have to meet my cousin at eight anyway,” Keith said, his mood taking a sour turn.

“Well he can come too. That way you wouldn’t be alone with a bunch of strangers. We’re going to the fair in the next county over...I don’t know if that’s your thing. But we’re a bunch of rascals so I’m sure fun will ensue, regardless,” Pidge said proudly. Keith smirked in spite of everything. Pidge was persistent.

“I guess I could ask him…” Keith said. It definitely wasn’t his thing. Nor was it likely Shiro’s thing. But the idea of missing an opportunity to hang out with Lance in a setting where he might be comfortable was almost too much to bear. Keith felt his heart racing again, as nervous as he had been when he received the email the night prior.

“Great! Okay so now that that’s out of the way, I can give you fair warning,” Pidge said, looking at the watch on the wrist that was also littered with several hand-made bracelets. Keith’s nervousness intensified. Pidge waved their hands and laughed.

“I mean it’s not that bad. It’s just that he’s really a loud personality and I don’t think you got the real side of him the other night at the bar. He’s competitive and snarky and while that fits right in with our little group since we all know how to keep him in line, it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I mean, he's actually pretty popular with people? But he's a man of many acquaintances and few friends. Only a select few have the real low down on him.” Pidge said. Pidge propped their elbows up on the table then rested their chin in their hands.

“What do you mean? He seemed fine both times...I mean...he wasn’t abrasive? He was just polite, mostly,” Keith almost stuttered as he recalled the encounters. He remembered his behavior with Mr. Joo. That old guy seemed to _love_ Lance. Pidge sighed with a wide smile.

“He was drunk when you met him. Well, not _drunk_. But like tipsy. He does that before every show. He loves to entertain but the pressure of performing gets to him a little, so he drinks a little before every show. It manages to bring out the more charming aspects of his personality, the ones that are usually squirreled away while he’s sober,” Pidge was almost laughing as they spoke. Keith looked at them, utter confusion gripping him. Were they trying to talk him out of meeting Lance after all the trouble they just went through to get him to meet him?

“Um, he wasn’t drunk at the store, was he? Because he was just as polite…” Keith started.

“Mmyeah, he wasn’t drunk, but that was like what? A two-minute interaction? He didn’t really have time to talk to you, right? Because to get the full Lance effect, you need more time. Hell, even _I_ had a crush on him when we first met. Then I got to know him better,” Pidge said with raised eyebrows and an amused look on their face.

“Um...so if you were ever considering making match-making your day job, don’t do that,” Keith said sarcastically. This person was such a contradiction. Pidge let out a raucous laugh.

“Fair enough. And I know I’m making it sound bad, but he’s not a bad guy. He’s actually a really great guy, and you couldn’t ask for a better friend. He can be a total Shrek though,” Pidge said with another light laugh.

“Uh. A _Shrek_?” Keith definitely did not like the sound of that.

“You know, an onion. With layers,” Pidge mimed holding an onion and peeling it apart. At least that is what Keith assumed was going on. “But maybe you’ll be lucky. He claims to have never had that issue with Hunk. Although to be fair, no one can grate Hunk without being a _total_ dickwad.” Pidge said bemusedly. Keith sat in silence for a moment. Taking all of this in.

This entire ordeal belonged on a Korean drama or something. It all felt too bizarre for someone as mundane as he was. Still, there was a part of him, a more daring part, that told him to go all in. Even if just for the story.

 _Just meet Lance. Get it over with. Worse that happens, you don’t get along and you wasted a week of your life having daydreams about some guy who doesn’t matter. Best case scenario: he cradles you in his arms and…._ Keith stopped himself and cleared his throat, looking at Pidge guiltily, realizing the silence had gone on for a bit too long.

“Okay, let’s just go for it,” Keith said with some courage he gathered from who knows where. Pidge smiled wide.

“Great! So can you meet us at Legendary again? I already pretended I left some equipment there, so they’re gonna meet me there in about an hour. It won’t be too weird running into you at a place you’ve been before.” Wow. Pidge had really put thought into this plan.

“Give me a minute. Let me call my cousin and see if he’s...willing to do this,” Keith said with a dubious smile. Pidge nodded and folded their arms across the table, propping their chin on one hand and scanning the room. Keith stood from the table and pulled out his phone. 

 

 

 

> 7:21PM
> 
> >To Shiro: Hey r u still at work or can u call me?

 

Keith sucked in his breath. He didn’t even know how to propose this entire thing to Shiro without his cousin judging him for all eternity. He’d be supportive, sure, but if things did end up going south, he would know that Shiro had called it and would bring it up some time in the future when Keith needed a good talking to about his life choices, which was more often than Keith liked. But Keith could hardly blame him this time. He was going on the word of a stranger. For all he knew Pidge could be leading him deeper into some seriously shady Carrie-esque prank. His phone buzzed and he clenched it in his hand and looked at the screen.

 

 

 

> 7:22PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Just got off, so I’ll be running a little late. Just give me a sec and I’ll call you.

 

Keith sighed and walked a little further away from the table. He glanced back at Pidge who was making disgusted faces at a baby at a nearby table. Keith put a finger to his lips as though it would help stifle his amusement. Suddenly his phone was ringing and he nearly dropped it, startled. He was quick enough to catch it this time. He answered.

“Okay, so I have a proposition for tonight…” Keith said, biting his bottom lip while he waited for a response. There was the slightest of pauses before Shiro replied.

“I’m listening,” he said with a curious tone.

 

+++++++

 

Keith tried to ignore the voice in the back of his mind that was chanting “This is a mistake”. He was just grateful that it wasn’t Shiro’s voice saying it to him out loud because then he really would give up and leave. His leg was hitting the bottom of the bar every time he shook it. Shiro placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him. It wasn’t really working.

“Drink to calm your nerves,” Shiro said with a light laugh before gesturing to the drink on the bar in front of Keith. It was untouched. Keith grabbed it and sipped at it before coughing and putting it down.

“What did you order us?” Keith gasped for breath.

“Oh man, that’s a really good scotch. I can’t believe you just wasted like five dollars in spit,” Shiro joked with him. Keith glared at him defensively.

“When have I ever had scotch in my life? And why would you waste a good scotch on someone who knows nothing about scotch?” Keith was practically growling his words in a low whisper. Shiro barked out a laugh.

“Scotch is classy. Apparently a little too much class for you, Little Cousin,” Shiro joked. Keith tensed up.

“Listen, don’t call me that in front of.. _him_. Or any of them. Okay?” Keith said, still wearing an irritated expression. Shiro smiled helplessly and raised a hand in defeat.

“Fine fine. But you really need to calm down. Try sipping at the scotch again,” Shiro suggested.  
“Yes, my hacking spit all over the bar is a great first impression to make,” Keith grumbled before picking up the glass a little too aggressively, almost spilling it. His eyes widened and he glanced to Shiro to see if he noticed. He did and rolled his eyes.

“What are we going to do with you? And this isn’t his first impression. It’ll be his third by my count!” Shiro lightly punched Keith’s shoulder. Keith rolled his eyes and the faintest hint of a smile crossed his lips before it fell and he put the drink to them, sipping cautiously. This time, he managed to sift it into his cheeks and swallow without any loss of liquid. Still, he was definitely not a scotch fan. His eyes glanced towards the entrance and widened a little when he recognized the person who had just walked in. It was the woman with the longest silver-dyed hair. What was her name? Azure? Aurora?

“Hey, Allura!” One of the ladies behind the bar said with a wide smile. Keith glanced at her. She was totally crushing. Keith could see why. This woman owned any room she walked into. She was decked in an outfit comprised mostly of purple acid wash denim and some hip looking t-shirt beneath, some black heeled shoes (with fringe) and a long soft looking flowing sweater over the entire ensemble. Her stance was almost regal. If Keith was a woman, he might have a crush on her too.

“Chandra, darling. Is that a new haircut?” Allura spoke enthusiastically and walked to the bar, leaning in. Keith raised an eyebrow, surprised by the not-quite-British accent. The girl behind the bar blushed and Keith turned towards Shiro as she replied to the woman known as Allura.

“That’s one of the people that knows Lance,” Keith whispered to his cousin. But his cousin had definitely already noticed her and was staring at her with the same bewitched look that he had just witnessed on the bartender.

“Whoa, really?” Shiro managed to mutter. He took a large swig of his scotch and put the finished glass down on the bar and Keith had to hold in his exasperated laughter.

“She’s going to be hanging out with us tonight. I mean if we pull this thing off,” Keith said, suddenly reminding himself of the oddness of his situation. Pidge didn’t go too into detail on how they’d get invited to the fair with the rest of them. It would be such an odd twist of events to maneuver, and he was kind of curious to see how Pidge’s obviously advanced mind was going to pull it off.

He glanced over at Allura who was ordering a drink from the bartender. The bartender smiled and said something more quietly than earlier. Allura responded with a look of surprise and then the bartender gestured over to Keith and Shiro. Allura caught his eyes before looking past him to Shiro, and he saw her mouth the word “really” before he averted his gaze back to the bar. He took a shaky sip of his scotch. He could hear her heels clicking on the ground coming towards them. Shit. What had that bartender said? Were they made? But how?

“ _Auchentoshan_!” Allura said to them with a giddy tone in her voice. Keith looked over, pretty sure they were about to be tossed out. She was pointing at their drinks, a bright smile gracing her perfectly pink lips and a happy glint in her eyes.

“Yeah! You know it?” Shiro said from behind Keith.

“My father owns several stocks in it. It’s not a very popular scotch, but they keep it here because they like me. You’re actually drinking a limited edition! Over 40 years old,” Allura said with a wink. Keith was in disbelief. She had come over because of their drinks? Of course Shiro would order the one drink that would attract the attention of one of Lance’s friends. The serendipitous nature of the past week was enough to make Keith’s head spin.

“Wow, then I guess we should toast to you, or else we’d be drinking a far inferior scotch,” Shiro said with a genuine smile. Keith looked over to him. His cheeks were flush and he wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or their new drinking buddy. Allura’s eyes fell on the bar and she looked briefly at Keith before returning her attention to Shiro, smiling all the while.

“It looks like you’ve finished yours. Let me buy you another,” Allura said before leaning delicately over the bar.

“Chandra, another round for…” Allura started, before pausing. “What is your name, darling?” She asked Shiro.

“Shiro. And this is my cousin, Keith,” Shiro said, gesturing towards Keith. Keith raised a hand to wave.

“Hello, Shiro, and cousin Keith. My name is Allura. A pleasure to make your acquaintance,” she said before turning back to the bar and finishing the order. She really was some kind of modern day princess. She made Keith forget that his feathers were ruffled over Shiro’s new distraction. If Shiro was distracted, then who was going to help Keith when he became overly flustered and put his foot in his mouth? He couldn’t be mad at the gorgeous woman in front of him, though. She was just being nice. The bartender slid two glasses of scotch to Allura and she handed one to Shiro.

“I’m sorry Keith, would you like another?” She said, suddenly realizing she hadn’t offered sooner. Keith shook his head.

“I’m not classy enough,” Keith deadpanned, unintentionally repeating Shiro’s words from moments ago. Allura broke out into a fit of laughter, her eyes twinkling even more, somehow.

“Well then, cheers?” She held up her glass. Keith grabbed his from the bar.

“Cheers,” Shiro chimed. The three clinked their glasses together and Keith sipped it much more cautiously than the other two. Allura walked around Shiro.

“Would you mind terribly if I sat with you while I waited for my friends?” Allura asked, pointing to the empty barstool beside Shiro.

“Of course not. It’s the least we could do,” Shiro said. Keith wanted to groan but held it in. So Shiro got all the wisdom, all the height, all the muscles and all the charm in the family, leaving Keith dense, short, thin and awkward. If there _was_ a God, he was incredibly biased and cruel. Keith was frowning, glancing around the bar, noticing the stage area from the previous week was empty. But it was early yet. He was wondering what kind of band would be playing tonight when his eyes wandered to the entrance and more familiar faces graced the bar.

Pidge was ahead of the rest of the group with a large grin. They wriggled their eyebrows at Keith and Keith nearly fell out of his seat. He turned to Shiro who was too engaged in a conversation with Allura to notice anything in the bar had changed or that his cousin had turned into a floundering fish beside him. Keith propped his elbows on the bar and took a swig of what was left in his glass. Big mistake, but he’d forget about it soon enough. He swallowed with only minor burning in his throat.

“Chandra, lovely lady! How are you doing this evening? Haven’t seen you around in a while!” Keith heard Lance saying loudly to the bartender. He glanced over at her and noticed she was wearing an unamused look.

“That’s because I avoid you, Lance,” she said deadpan. Pidge busted out laughing along with the rest of their group, which consisted of the big guy, Hunk and the singer, Shay. They were behind the others, each with an arm wrapped around the other. A couple, if Keith guessed correctly. Lance shrunk slightly, at the remark, but still seemed to be laughing at himself. He was wearing some dark pants with high tops and a denim button up over a shirt that appeared to be printed with galaxies. In big letters across his chest was the word “Nasty” written in the font NASA used. Keith smirked.

“But you don’t hate me? Right, Chandra? So I can get a drink?” Pidge said with a wide smile and raised eyebrows. The bartender looked over to Pidge and half-smiled.

“You’re okay. And for your twenty-first birthday I will give you a Flaming Chandra on the house. But not a sip till then, Sugar,” Chandra said with a wink. Keith’s brows furrowed, wondering why Pidge was allowed in a bar if they were underaged.

“You’re breakin' my heart, Chandra. One day I’ll win you over,” Pidge said in a bratty tone. Chandra let out a huff of disbelief.

“Well, can those of us old enough to engage in the consumption of alcoholic beverages please order? Chandra?” Lance asked with another smile, this one looking a little more nervous than his previous.

“Seeing as how it’s my job…” Chandra started.

“Excellent. Hunk, Shay, whaddaya guys want?” Lance faced towards them.

“I’ll be right back, gonna go grab that gear I left behind last week,” Pidge said. The others nodded and continued deciding what drinks to order in a small huddle. Pidge grinned wider and wider, walking towards Keith.

“Good luck, man!” Pidge whispered with a thumbs up pressed against their stomach as they passed him. Suddenly Pidge stopped in their tracks when they reached Allura and Shiro.

“You realize we’ve arrived?” Pidge asked in a somewhat annoyed tone. Allura pulled herself out of her conversation with Shiro to smile at Pidge.

“Actually, Shiro was distracting me while I waited. All of you are here?” Allura asked, glancing over towards the other end of the bar where their friends stood. “Ah, lovely!” Pidge shook their head and continued wandering to the back of the bar.

“Lance! Shay! Hunk! Over here,” Allura said loudly, waving her hand in the air to beckon them over.

“Hey, Allura!” Shay said gleefully, pulling herself from Hunk’s side to walk over to them. Keith tensed up, knowing now that Lance had seen them. He glanced towards him and yes, Lance was definitely looking at him with wide eyes and a very hard to read expression cast over his face.

“Well, what are you ordering?” Chandra asked Lance curtly. Lance’s attention was pulled back to the bartender and he ordered drinks while Hunk followed Shay to Allura. Keith turned back towards the others and away from Lance because he was pretty sure his face way too hot and was grateful he could at least blame it on being a lightweight if anyone wanted to be a jerk and bring it up. Shay was hugging Allura, then pulled back to glance at Shiro and Keith with a warm smile. Hunk walked up and gave Allura a nod, and Allura nodded at him in response.

“Shay, Hunk, I’d like for you to meet Shiro and Keith. We met a few minutes ago. Can you believe they ordered _Auchentoshan_?” Allura asked excitedly. Shay and Hunk glanced at each other dubiously before looking at Shiro and Keith.

“You like that stuff?” Hunk asked with a toothy grin, even though his nose seemed scrunched up in disgust.

“I think it’s great,” Shiro said, a little too enthusiastically (if you asked Keith). Keith was about to answer Hunk when he saw Lance walking up in his periphery.

“I, uh. It’s not really for me,” Keith said.

“Did you guys form a new group while I was ordering drinks for us?” Lance asked, sounding disapproving. Keith glanced at him, unsure of how to act. This was definitely a bad idea. He was supposed to look surprised, probably, that he was bumping into Lance again. Lance was giving him a wary look and suddenly Keith couldn’t help himself.

“Boyfriend,” he deadpanned and raised an arm at his elbow to wave. The rest of the group was quiet, suddenly, and Keith could feel everyone’s eyes on him. Lance, however, had a wide grin on his face.

“We bump into each other more time, we’re upgrading to fiances and registering at Bed Bath and Beyond,” Lance said, his grin growing slightly.

“Lance, do you know Keith?” Allura asked, popping her head over Shiro’s shoulder. His eyes wandered to Allura and Keith took a breath. Crisis averted. For now.

“Sort of. Um, we sorta met at last week’s show,” Lance offered her. Allura’s eyebrows raised in some kind of knowing way and her mouth formed into an “oh”. Keith could swear Lance was looking severely flustered suddenly. “How do _you_ know him?” Lance asked, and there was a bite to his words that was directed at her. Allura looked apologetic before smiling and introducing Shiro.

“This is Shiro, Keith’s cousin. I actually just met them moments ago. They ordered _Auchentoshan_ , so, of course, I had to strike up a conversation,” Allura said.

“ _Of course_ ,” Lance said with an eye roll before he looked over at Shiro. “Hey, I’m Lance,” he said, holding out his right hand to shake Shiro’s. Shiro offered him his prosthetic hand, and Lance’s eyes widened as he grabbed it lightly and shook it.

“Whoa. Dude! You got like, the bionic thing going on here, don’t you?” Lance said, staring at his arm as Shiro pulled it away.

Keith bristled and his heart sank almost simultaneously.

“What?” He said through gritted teeth. His voice was drowned out by every one of Lance’s friends admonishing him loudly.

“Lance!” Allura said in a heavy tone that even scared Keith a little.

“ _Burro_! What the heck is wrong with you?” Shay said to him with a glare. Hunk was shaking his head and frowning.

“What?” Lance said, looking completely bewildered. Keith felt himself glaring.

“I’m so sorry,” Shay was saying to Shiro. “I’d say he was raised wrong, but his parents are actually really great, we don’t really know why he’s like this,” Shay sounded sincere in her apology, but also nervous.

“It’s okay, really,” Shiro was saying to Shay. Keith knew it wasn’t. Shiro hated behavior like that, and Keith was already disappointed that his prince had turned out to be an idiotic frog. He continued glaring at Lance, whose eyes suddenly widened. Pidge returned to the group and their eyes darted around at all the angry glares directed at Lance. Pidge joined them.

“What did you _do_ Lance? I was gone for like two minutes!” Pidge said gruffly.

“Okay, so I rewound and realized how that sounded and I’m so so sorry. I totally didn’t mean it that way at all,” Lance said, slouched shoulders and holding his hands up in surrender. Keith looked over to Shiro, feeling the need to apologize to him profusely for him having to meet this person that he had been talking about almost obsessively for the past week who had turned out to be such an obvious asshole.

“Seriously. I just meant, like, I have a cousin who was in Iraq and he came home about five years ago. He’d lost an arm too. Um, and I’ve just seen him go through a few prosthetics. Right now he has the bebionic? But it’s still not as advanced as what you have going on. I was just surprised by the tech. I’m like really sorry, I didn’t mean to um...be a complete asshole. Really,” Lance was saying. Keith looked to Shiro, who seemed to relax at the sincere apology and explanation. Keith was still holding on to his anger.

“It’s fine. And the bebionic is excellent. It’s similar technology to this, actually. This is actually a prototype. It’s not on the market yet. I work with the team that’s developing it,” Shiro said, proudly. Keith loosened up the slightest bit, knowing Shiro was okay again. He definitely never minded talking about prosthetics or his work, but Lance had approached the subject like he was some kind of spectacle. Keith bristled again involuntarily.

“Really?” Allura interjected, completely enthralled.

“Wow. That’s so cool. What company? I can tell my cousin to keep an eye on you guys,” Lance said, still trying to save his reputation. He glanced over at Keith, noticing the set scowl on his face, and looked away, scratching the back of his neck. Shiro pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to Lance. He grabbed the card and looked up at Shiro.

“That’s the company. He can call that number if he has any questions that the website doesn’t answer,” Shiro said.

“Wow, thanks,” Lance said, turning the card over in his hand and looking at it intently. He looked back up at Shiro. “And sorry again. I have a case of recurring foot-in-mouth disease. It comes and goes but when it comes it’s really bad,” Lance offered lightly.

Keith noticed he looked absolutely sincere and ashamed. Keith felt his body relaxing, not even realizing how tense he had been through that entire exchange. He suddenly remembered what Pidge had warned him about earlier. _“He’s a great guy. He can be a total Shrek though”_. Keith couldn’t think of a more apt analogy because Lance had just behaved like a total ogre in his eyes.

“I accept your apology, Lance,” Shiro said diplomatically and Keith knew he meant it. Lance sighed in relief and looked towards the bar, noticing that Chandra was sliding drinks towards them. Allura was already asking Shiro rapid fire questions about his work and Hunk and Shay were listening intently. Pidge walked up beside Lance and pat his back.

“You’re kind of pathetic,” Pidge said, sounding only slightly sympathetic. Keith smirked.

“Yeah yeah,” Lance said, his tone revealing how bruised his ego was at the moment. Lance grabbed two drinks and passed them to Shay and Hunk.

“Thanks,” they both said in unison. Shay scrunched up her nose in a smile and put an arm around Hunk while they listened to Shiro talking about his job. Keith looked back to Lance who was facing the bar and looking over his shoulder at Keith.

“Would you...um do you want another drink?” He asked, glancing over at Keith’s empty glass. Keith was still keyed up from his irritation and trying to calm it down. A drink would probably help, but he couldn’t risk what other things it might help have a hand in. Like his total and utter humiliation. The night was still young, after all.  

“No thanks,” Keith said, a little more curtly than he intended.

“So Keith, what do _you_ do?” Pidge said sipping on a glass of something that they had procured seemingly out of thin air. It was filled with at least five maraschino cherries. Keith raised a curious eyebrow and Pidge exchanged glances with him before Lance turned back around, swishing his drink dejectedly before sipping at it.

“Um, well I’m kind of a mechanic,” Keith said.

“Kind of? What does that mean?” Pidge asked, before crunching down on some ice from their glass.

“Well, I work on specialized bikes mostly. I also restore classics and foreign and rare bikes,” Keith elaborated. He was feeling the unsettled feeling from earlier creeping up on him. His palms felt sweaty as the attention landed on him. He looked over to Lance who seemed interested in what he had to say, eyes slightly wide.

“Wow, really?” Pidge said, totally milking it. Both Keith and Lance seemed to shoot them a glance at the same time. “Because Lance here rides a…” Pidge started.

“Pidge!” Lance nearly yelped. Pidge put on their best feigned innocence and shrugged at their blushing friend.

“Oh. Your scooter?” Keith remembered his Ruckus from the day before. He looked over and Lance seemed to deflate and his head tipped back in exasperation.

“Ugh, I hate that word,” Lance groaned. Keith raised a confused eyebrow.

“But..that’s exactly what a Ruckus is?” Keith said. He didn’t get Lance’s sudden frustration. Lance took an annoyed sip of his drink.

“Yeah but _scooter_ ,” Lance said the word “scooter” in some kind of mocking whiny tone. “It’s just like...it makes me feel like I’m some kid riding around on a toy or something,” Lance said petulantly. The tone wasn’t attractive, and Keith thought if it weren’t for Lance’s _dazzling_ blue eyes, he'd be joining the other conversation right about now.

But there was more to it than that if Keith thought about it. Lance was annoying him. And Keith very much wanted to put him in his place, which was something else Pidge had mentioned at the cafe earlier.

“I don’t get what your problem is? I’ve restored some classic scooters too. Some Vespas. What? Are you ashamed you ride a scooter?” Keith prodded, leaning against the bar on his elbow. His eyes fell on Pidge for a moment, whose eyes were wide and looked like they were holding in a laugh, judging by the thin-lipped grin they were shooting at him. Lance groaned, and Keith couldn’t discern what it meant.

“No,” Lance finally answered, his tone completely indignant.

“Then, what is it?” Keith couldn’t drop it. He hated when people put on airs.

This would be the part of a movie where it would shoot to the inside of his head and show utter chaos and a huge blinking red “Alert” sign while all the little people running his brain were running around in a panic. _Stop! For the love of God, what are you doing?_ But it was too late. The words had been cast like rigged dice. He always seemed to ignore those warning signs when he needed them most. Lance looked completely humiliated and Keith suddenly felt a pang in his stomach. It was looking more and more like there were two Shreks in the room.

“I don’t know. Nothing. I didn’t mean anything,” Lance said in defeat. He cleared his throat and walked away from the bar to go stand by Hunk. Keith looked helplessly to Pidge. Pidge was kind of laughing, but it was forced.

“He’ll get over that,” Pidge said quietly. “Like I said, his ego is fragile, but he always bounces back spectacularly.” Keith groaned quietly and could only hope that the San Andreas would take pity on him at that very moment and swallow up the bar from directly under his barstool. Pidge looked over at him, grinning again.

“Oh man, tonight’s gonna be _fun_!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tsk tsk tsk. 
> 
> Thanks again for reading!! :>
> 
> PS/ My Human!Shay is afro-Latinx. K thanks.


	4. That Feeling When: It Can't Get Any Worse, Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I feel like there is just a lot of blushing in this chapter. Like so much blushing.

In the end, Pidge didn’t even have to invite Keith and Shiro to join them at the fair. When Pidge reminded the group that they had to leave, Allura absolutely insisted that the two join them so that she could continuing picking Shiro’s brain. Keith looked at the completely smitten look on Shiro’s face as he accepted the invitation without even asking Keith. He suspected even if it hadn’t been the plan to accompany them all along, it would have gone down the same way. Keith had rolled his eyes, but it was kind of nice to see Shiro into someone again. His dry spell had lasted almost as long as Keith’s since his career started taking off.

There were two cars: Hunk’s station wagon, and Shiro’s sedan. This is where Pidge had a hand in some definitely ill-conceived match-making once again. Pidge insisted on taking up the entire back seat of Hunk’s wagon and goaded Allura into asking Lance to ride in Shiro’s car with her so that she wouldn’t be alone with two practical strangers. Lance had objected at first, but Allura had preyed on his sense of chivalry, apparently, and Lance sat in the back seat with Keith while Allura sat in the passenger’s seat up front.

Keith almost felt sorry for Lance. Pidge was laying it on pretty thick. Even if they hadn’t met at the cafe prior, Keith would have definitely caught on to what Pidge was trying to do. And if what Pidge said about Lance and his attraction to Keith was true, Lance must have been marinating in embarrassment. It was such a different version of him from the night before. He was practically someone else. Where had the confident man that winked at him gone? Keith felt something down in the pit of his stomach that maybe it was still a prank and maybe this wasn’t actually Lance at all, but a look-alike, even as outrageous as the idea seemed.

The car ride to the fair was mostly filled with Allura and Shiro chatting amiably. Keith felt almost bitterly unsurprised that the two most attractive people in any room were completely compatible. Well, almost most attractive. Keith’s eyes wandered over to Lance who had his arms folded while he looked out the window. His body language was so closed off and Keith knew it was his fault. He frowned, trying to think of something to say but coming up blank. Maybe he could apologize for the scooter stuff from earlier. He really was feeling kind of bad about that.

“So how did your group all meet?” Shiro was asking Allura. Keith’s attention was momentarily drawn away from the brooding Lance when the conversation turned to a topic he was actually curious about.

“Lance and I actually...dated,” Allura said with a light laugh. She turned in the passenger’s seat to look at Lance behind her. Keith’s eyes were wide and he felt as though his guts had been sucked up into his chest.

“Does it count as dating if it was two dates?” Lance asked sarcastically. His mouth was buried in his palm.

“Two dates is definitely dating,” Allura said, stretching her arm back to knock Lance’s knee.

“Well, it was like pity-dating though, so on my official resume of romantic partners you’re definitely not included,” Lance said, a smile finally returning to his lips. Allura laughed.

“It wasn’t pity!” Allura said, almost shocked. She glanced at Keith who was staring between the two of them uncomfortably. “You always say that, Lance! I genuinely found you charming when we first met. Sort of,” Allura said with a laugh. Shiro chuckled at that too, but Keith still felt too dumbfounded. It wasn’t completely implausible that Lance might date someone this gorgeous. But if _that_ was his standard, Keith could not possibly measure up. It was seeming more and more likely that this was a prank, or that Pidge had read into things.

“We just turned out not to be compatible romantically, that’s all,” Allura said with a final smile before facing forward again.

 _Good,_ Keith thought to himself and wondered if Shiro was thinking the same thing.

“So you two met in school?” Shiro asked. Keith looked at the rear view mirror and saw Shiro’s eyes on him before quickly returning to the road.

“Surfing competition,” Lance offered.

“You surf?” Keith choked out, finally able to speak again, though not gracefully. Lance looked at him, ruffled by the dubious tone in Keith’s statement.

“Yes! Lance is a wonderful surfer. He took home a trophy in that competition,” Allura interjected. Keith glanced up at her before looking back to Lance.

“That’s her nice way of saying I didn’t come in first,” Lance said with an irritated smile.

“But you still did wonderfully. I still say you should have at least come in second,” Allura said. “You were so much more graceful than that Kiwi showboat!”

“A. That showboat was your mentor and is a beloved family friend, B. He totally deserved second place, and C. I like how you didn’t say I deserved first place,” Lance said, amusement in his tone.

“Well I _like_ my first place trophy,” Allura said in a teasing way. Lance let out a breathy laugh. “Anyway, that’s how Lance and I met. After a few days of his pestering me during the tourney, I agreed to a date. After another one, we _both_ decided to remain just friends. I met the others through him,” Allura continued the explanation, trying to get back to Shiro’s original question. She was on another tangent with Shiro and Keith lost interest in the subject and glanced to Lance.

“So, um, how did the rest of you meet?” Keith asked. Lance raised an eyebrow at him, and turned his body slightly towards Keith to answer his question.

“I met Hunk freshman year of college. I’ve been neighbors with Shay since she was in diapers. Our families are super close. That’s how her and Hunk met. And Hunk brought Pidge to us through some space camp. But don’t call it that to Pidge’s face or she’ll seriously try to murder you,” Lance said with a fond smile added to the warning.

“Oh. So Pidge is a _she_?” Keith asked, realizing he had never thought to ask, nor had it come up earlier.

“Only if she says so. If she didn’t say anything just use they pronouns,” Lance said, suddenly very tuned in on Keith, as if he was trying to gauge him.

“Okay. Can I ask why?” Keith asked gingerly.

“You can ask her. She’d be cool with it. But it’s not my place to talk about it,” Lance said.

“Oh,” Keith said, he looked out his window for a moment, letting a silence fall over the backseat.

“So, _Keith_ huh?” Lance asked in an amused tone with heavy emphasis on the “th” part of his name. Keith turned to him. “You don’t really look like a Keith,” Lance continued. Keith tensed up, his expression dropping.

“What _do_ I look like?” He asked, preparing for something ignorant and awful as he’d heard many times before when a conversation started this way.

“I dunno. Not a Keith. I mean who _named_ you?” Lance’s tone was slightly mocking and Keith felt his blood pressure rising. He had no idea what that was supposed to mean but he didn’t like it. Instead of shutting down defensively, words started pouring from his mouth.

“Well, in my culture, it’s actually customary for the entire familial community to jointly name their children. So you have the neighborhood elders come to your home with all family and neighbors present and they read tea leaves that offer up names based on the spirit of the unborn child. Usually it’s three or four names. Once the tea leaves dry, the elders do a ritual involving a summoning of the wind. Whichever name stays in it’s original place on the parchment is the name they give the child,” Keith said.  
“Whoa, really?” Lance asked, eyes open wide in surprise. Shiro busted out laughing and Keith smirked in irritation.

“No, you idiot. My parents named me!” Lance’s expression dropped into something akin to solemn and Keith was pretty sure, even if it was one of the best jokes he had ever made, he had completely ruined any chances with Lance.

“Oh,” Lance said, folding his arms against his chest again and looking out his window. Keith felt a prickling in his chest. If it weren’t for Shiro and Allura getting along so well in the front seats, the ride would have likely continued the rest of the way in complete silence.

When they were minutes away, Keith felt his phone buzz in his pocket and pulled it up. It was Pidge. Keith had forgotten they’d exchanged numbers at the cafe when putting this foolish plan together.

 

 

 

 

> 9:35PM
> 
> **> Pidge:** So how’s it going? Is love in the air? :D

 

Keith’s already deep frowned found a way to deepen further. He could feel it in his jaw.

 

 

 

 

> 9:36PM
> 
> >To Pidge: Pretty sure he hates me. Like a lot.

 

 

 

 

> 9:37PM
> 
> **> Pidge:** What? WHY?????!?!? I practically gave him to u on a silver platter!

 

 

 

 

> 9:37PM
> 
> >To Pidge: He seems kind of...mad? Or...we maybe embarrassed him one 2 many times.

 

 

 

 

> 9:38PM
> 
> **> Pidge:** Aw man, u embarrassed him AGAIN nd I missed it? Maybe u guys shoulda rode w us..

 

 

 

 

> 9:39PM
> 
> >To Pidge: Listen SPACE CAMP this isn’t funny! I’ve deifnitely fucked things up!

 

 

 

 

> 9:39PM
> 
> **> Pidge:** WHTFUEUKCFUCK! Listen pretty boy, if u want to keep ur junk from getting kicked, I suggest that be the last time u call me that. Now!
> 
>  
> 
> **> Pidge:**I don’t know what u said to get Lance, the guy with the biggest crush in the whole world, royally pissed at u, but you can fix it. I believe in u!

 

Keith rolled his eyes at the message, not knowing what to say in response to that. Pidge definitely didn’t know him well enough to know that he was the last person that could fix any social foul up. Why’d they think he spent all his time with his cousin? He just put his phone back in his pocket, not wanting to have to confess his utter social failings to a potentially new friend.

He looked over to Lance who had taken out his own phone and was scrolling through some social media app. Keith sighed and looked out the windshield as they pulled up to the fair. To his surprise, it looked kind of...cool. It seemed to have a horror theme going on.

“What the fresh hell?” Keith asked, leaning forward and holding on to Shiro’s headrest to get a better look.

“Fresh hell, indeed,” Allura said with unfaltering amusement. “It’s a Halloween fair. Our group is big on the holiday, F.Y.I.” She winked at Keith before looking back up at the lights from the fair.

“Whoa. That’s kinda cool,” Keith said.

“You’ve never heard of the Scare Fair? They’ve been doing it every year for like, the past ten years,” Lance said incredulously. Keith felt a slight flush on his cheeks.

“Oh,” was his only response. At least Lance was still speaking to him.

“We both work a lot. I’ve never heard about it either,” Shiro came in with a save and Keith was grateful.

“Aw man! Then you guys are in for a real treat. Unless you hate getting the piss scared out of you. Then you’re probably in for an awful time,” Lance said, excitement in his voice as he pulled himself up to Allura’s backrest to look at the lights and rides.

Keith couldn’t say if he liked having the “piss scared out of him” since it really hadn’t happened before. He’d been startled, and while he enjoyed horror movies, it was more out of an appreciation than enjoying being scared.

He did worry about Shiro though. His cousin was not a huge fan of horror  _or_ things that jumped out at you. He just didn’t like being startled in general. Keith knew he’d put on a brave face even if he’d be uncomfortable the entire time. He was starting to feel extremely guilty for dragging him into this entire ordeal.

“You’re lookin’ kinda nervous,” Keith heard Lance say. He looked over and noticed that Lance was focused in on him with a grin and eyebrow raised in amusement.

“What? No I’m not,” Keith said defensively. Lance must have noticed his expression while he was thinking of Shiro but he wasn’t about to say that out loud.

“Sure,” Lance said with a final smirk that Keith really wanted to wipe off his face. He felt his neck heating up and he no longer had any idea if it was because he was angry at Lance for being a cocky jerk or because Lance was so close to him, looking at him while still being criminally attractive.

“There’s Hunk’s station wagon,” Lance said lifting his arm to point in between the front seats towards the windshield, pushing his shoulder against Keith’s. Keith kept his eyes up front, hoping the darkness of the car would cover his tomato complexion he was sure he now had.

“I see them,” Shiro confirmed and pulled up to a spot in the dirt beside them.

 

+++++++

 

The walk to the park from their cars was at least a quarter mile and along the way Pidge and Hunk had managed to wrangle Shiro away from Allura because their area of study was heavily intertwined with what Shiro did for a living and they had a ton of questions. Keith smirked when Allura pouted noticeably at the lack of attention she was receiving from his cousin. She recovered quickly enough, perking up and falling behind to walk in line with Shay, Lance, and Keith.

“Keith, I must apologize for monopolizing your cousin’s time. I hope you weren’t planning for a fun night out for just the two of you? It was extremely rude of me to impose upon your time like that. I hope you can forgive me?” Allura said. He glanced up at her twinkling blue eyes, brimming with sincerity, her smile almost timid. Keith shrugged.

“We were just going to hang out. Nothing major. Honestly, this might be more interesting…” Keith said before stopping himself. More interesting for him, maybe, but not necessarily for Shiro. He grimaced as the guilt set in once again.

“Oh wonderful!” Allura said, pressing her hands together happily. “Are the two of you into horror? It’s become somewhat of a tradition for us to come here at least once or twice during the Halloween season,” Allura said.

“ _I_ like horror,” Keith said, with a quick glance towards Shiro. “Don’t know if he’ll be into it,” he said a little more quietly. Allura looked perplexed as she glanced up at Shiro.

“I should have thought to mention the theme before we came,” she said apologetically.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Keith said, waving his hands dismissively.  
“Well if he needs a break I wouldn’t mind keeping him company,” Allura said, covering her mouth as though her words surprised her. Lance barked out a laugh and Keith smirked lightly.

“I don’t think he’d mind either,” Keith said to make her feel a little less awkward. It didn’t stop the color in her face from deepening.

“So, Keith, I haven’t had much time to talk with you,” Shay interjected into the conversation, walking on the other side of him. She was tall; even if she hadn’t been wearing boots she’d have trumped Keith’s height. Aside from Pidge, Keith was sure he was the shortest one there. Keith looked to her, not knowing how to respond.

“I know things got off to a rocky start with our little group. I hope you won’t hold that against us,” Shay said with a sudden glare at Lance before returning to her kind expression as her eyes settled back on Keith.

“Oh my _god!_ ” Keith heard Lance from the side.

“It’s fine. It was all a misunderstanding. I get it. If Shiro said it’s okay, it’s okay,” Keith said, trying to diffuse another foot-in-mouth back and forth he seemed to have going with Lance. It was almost as if it were a competition to see who could say the worst thing to the other.

Shay seemed relieved by his answer and it opened up a floodgate of questions from her that Keith had not been ready for. It was like an interrogation and he could feel the sweat forming at the nape of his neck. _What do you do? How old are you? How long have you lived in LA? What’s your family like?_ Shay seemed to have no filter when it came to these questions, not at all considering if anything might be inappropriate or too personal. What was strange to Keith was that he didn’t mind it. Kindness and joy seemed to radiate off of Shay and he was giving her answers just as fast as she was asking for them.

He had noticed that Lance moved up to Pidge, Shiro, and Hunk though. If this was supposed to be the date set-up that Pidge had pitched to Keith, they were doing things horribly wrong. Shiro was discussing something with Hunk and Pidge looked back at Keith with that smirk that he knew--in the short time of knowing Pidge--was full of trouble. Pidge stepped toward Lance and matched his gait while talking to him. Keith tried not to stare at them and attempted to refocus on Shay.

“....but that’s neither here nor there I guess,” Shay was saying. Keith hadn’t heard the beginning of that statement, so he nodded, hoping it wasn’t the incorrect response.

“So Shay, um, how about you? You’ve just been asking about me this whole time…” Keith said, feeling awkward as the words came out of his mouth. Keith hadn’t made a new friend since high school, and frankly, he was miserably rusty in that area of his life as well. He still had no idea how the hell people made friends as adults. But Shay smiled wide at him.

“Sorry. I’m probably the nosiest of the group, fair warning. But what would you like to know?” Keith felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out.

“Um, well Lance said you guys have known each other since you were in diapers?” Keith said. He pulled open his phone.

“Oh yeah, our families lived in a house that was turned into apartments, so we got real close real fast since we had to share a yard and driveway and all that. According to my dad, it started off a bit rocky, but that was before we were even born. Now everyone is one happy family,” Shay said. Keith glanced at his text.

 

 

 

> 9:52PM
> 
> **> Pidge:** Man oh man, i don’t know what you said to him but he won’t even tell me. So it must be bad haha. Keith. How?

 

Keith grimaced and stuffed his phone back into his pocket. Well, that confirmed it. His chances were ruined. Might as well let that sink in and try not to look miserable while he focused on the others.

“Are you feeling okay?” Allura suddenly asked him from his other side. Keith snapped his head towards her unintentionally, wondering if she knew what was going on.

“Huh?” Keith choked out.

“You look a little ill suddenly. Are you feeling alright?”

“I’m fine. It’s just warm,” Keith lied. Well, his plan to not look miserable had failed utterly in the span of one second. He was already wondering when they’d be able to leave. Allura was nodding knowingly.

“It is rather torrid weather for an October evening,” she added as elegantly as ever.

Meanwhile, Shay had continued on about herself some more. By the time they reached the front entrance Keith knew her age, her area of study, her career ambitions and a few of her favored hobbies. He wondered how much of that information he’d retain, but he was suddenly distracted by the lights of the fair.

The group was covered in shadows and neon greens and blues and purples as the lights from the fair loomed over them. Keith temporarily forgot to feel miserable because he was genuinely intrigued by the fair. He could hear recorded maniacal laughter of witches and vampires and the recorded screams that ensued. It was kind of awesome. He looked over at Shiro who was still sucked into a conversation with Hunk. Keith wondered if he should go save him. Shiro was too polite to say he didn’t want to spend the evening talking about medicine and mechanics and the like.

Allura quickened her step to catch up to the rest of the group and Keith and Shay did the same, closing the gap of distance between them.

“..the mechanics of it are like, impossible,” Hunk was saying in a tone that Keith would have to assume was giddy.

“I hate to sound like a Disney movie or something, but nothing’s impossible in science. At least that’s the approach we like to take when working on new projects,” Shiro said with slight laugh. Hunk chuckled as well and Pidge snorted.

“You _do_ sound like a Disney character. Not surprising since you look like a Disney _prince_. I mean how often do you work out?” Pidge said, amusement underlying their tone. They sidestepped towards Shiro as the group gathered in the line for entry. They started poking at Shiro’s bicep as if to check if it was real. Shiro laughed mildly.

“Often,” he said with a serious tone that had Pidge snorting out another laugh.

“No shit!” They said.

“Alright guys, so we need to start talking strategies!” Lance interrupted. Keith glanced at him and he seemed to be almost vibrating, a newfound energy in his demeanor. Meanwhile, Allura had made her way to the front of the group in line and was almost at the ticket booth while the rest of them huddled together.

“You and Hunk try this every year and every year, without fail, your strategy falls apart within minutes,” Pidge said, straightening the glasses on their face.

“That’s because you guys don’t stick to the plan!” Hunk said, hitting his pinky against his palm to emphasize the last five words. Pidge snorted.

“We can’t help it if Lance is distracted by shiny lights,” Pidge said with a mocking tone, making shifty eyes at the man in question. Lance glared at her.

“Dude, that happened one time and it was my first time here! Will you never let me live it down?”

Lance folded his arms and Keith tried to hide his smirk.

“Nope. Because we had to spend two hours to find you when we could have been stuffing our gourds or going through mazes or riding on scary hayrides!” Pidge said. Somehow they managed to mix a smirk into a disgruntled expression. Keith was impressed and looked back to Lance, who seemed to be laughing at himself now. Keith almost froze. That was the Lance he remembered from the night they met. The one that made his heartbeat speed up and his palms sweat.

“Lance, I think we’re out-numbered. Unless we can get Shiro to back us up. I’m pretty sure everyone’d listen to Shiro,” Hunk said, glancing slyly towards Lance. Lance chuckled.

“No thanks, guys. I’d like to just try and enjoy a night off without having to apparently chase you all around and keep order,” Shiro said.

“I know you’re joking, but you’re probably, sadly, spot on,” Lance grinned. “Besides, I already know what’s up. First some rides, then some games, then some rides, then some food, then some rides that won’t make us puke our guts out, then some…”

“Games? Aren’t carnival games usually rigged?” Keith interrupted. Lance’s focus fell on him and Keith felt his ears heating up and hoped his hair was covering them enough so no one would notice. Lance wore a sly grin, though his eyes had more of a severity to them.

“Not here. I’ll have you know the majority of my siblings’ stuffed toys are from this very fair,” Lance bragged. Keith involuntarily scoffed.

“So you’re good?” Keith asked, staring at him thoughtfully. Lance’s eyes seemed to dart quickly from his friends and then back to Keith.

“Um. That’s exactly what I’m saying. In fact,” Lance said, puffing his chest out a bit, “I guarantee by the time we leave tonight, I will have won every person in our group a stuffed animal.”

Keith felt it again. The prickling at the back of his neck and the tension in his shoulder and the heat deep in his stomach. He wanted to wipe the cocky grin off of Lance’s face.

He knew immediately it was his frustration with the situation. The fact that he had all but blown his chances at actually attempting to romantically pursue this guy. He wasn’t going to be able to kiss that grin off, so he might as well find another way to get rid of it.

“Or what?” Keith said suddenly. His periphery did not miss that even Shiro had turned toward him, eyeing him curiously. Even without focus, Keith knew what Shiro was thinking. _What the hell are you doing, Keith? I thought you_ **_liked_ ** _this guy!_ Lance looked stunned, his mouth hanging slack.

“What?” Lance pulled himself together and his demeanor shifted again. There was a slight aggression to it. Keith didn’t hate it. If it wasn’t currently directed at him, it might even be a turn on.

“You guarantee it or what?” Keith heard himself. Lance scoffed, scrunching his nose a bit as he grinned in disbelief. Lance glanced over at Pidge, maybe looking for a life line, but Pidge was too busy giggling to be of any assistance. Lance put his arms to his hips and hung his head in Keith’s direction, looking completely thrown off.

“Well, dealer’s choice. You decide!” Lance said, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth nervously. The look sent a jolt through Keith and he hoped and prayed it was not visible to anyone else.

His decision? _Date me. Kiss me. Marry me._ Keith chewed on the inside of his cheek in thought. What could he _realistically_ ask for? His eyes shot to Shiro who was only shaking his head and rolling his eyes in a very “you got yourself into this” kind of way.

“S-surfing lessons,” Keith said, clenching his fists slightly. It wasn’t that he really cared to learn to surf, but it would definitely mean he’d see Lance again, maybe in a less stressful setting. Plus seeing Lance surf wouldn’t be so bad either. Lance looked just as bewildered as Keith felt for suggesting such a thing. Keith could see Pidge on their phone, texting and felt his pocket vibrate moments later. The entire group watched in silence, waiting for Lance to answer.

“Alright, everyone! I’ve bought our entry and ride passes! I have your wristbands here!” Allura said, waving the neon colored bands--six pink and one green-- in the air, smiling brightly.

“How much do we owe you?” Shiro asked, pulling out his wallet. Allura quickly waved her hand in dismissal.

“My treat, this time. I practically dragged you and your poor cousin along,” Allura said, handing Shiro a pink wristband.

“I can’t let you…” Shiro started.

“Nonsense. If it bothers you that much you can...win me a stuffed animal at a booth,” Allura said with a wink. Pidge snorted.

“Lance is already on it,” Pidge said with a goofy smile.

“Hmm? What did I miss exactly?” Allura asked, but was distracted as Pidge tried to grab a pink band from Allura before she quickly tugged her hand out of reach and pulled the green band from the bunch to offer to them. “One more year, my little friend,” Allura said. The statement was said in amusement, but there was a bit of a bite to it. Like a haughty older sister. Pidge grumbled and swiped the green band away from her.

“I swear to God as soon as I turn 21, you’re going to be my D.D. for a goddamn year!” Pidge said grumpily as they fasted their band to their wrist.

“We’ll negotiate those terms,” Allura said lightly and turned to Hunk and Shay to offer them their bands. Keith had been watching the group and hadn’t noticed Lance sneakily coming up beside him.

“So if I don’t win you want surf lessons, huh?” Lance said, raised eyebrows, a cunning look about him. Keith’s brows furrowed and he looked suspiciously at Lance and shrugged.

“Yeah, I think I’d like that,” Keith said, trying to find his own cockiness and not sure if he hit the mark. Lance nodded to himself and exhaled loudly through his nose.

“Okay. Okay cool. But if I win,” Lance said with a thoughtful pause. “..hmm. Do you know how to work on a Ruckus?” Keith grabbed both his and Lance’s wristband from Allura’s extended hand before her attention was quickly and unsurprisingly returned to Shiro.

“Of course,” Keith said, his voice having found the cocky tone a little too late. Oh well. Lance smirked.

“Alright, then if I win I want you to maintain my Ruckus for free…” Lance said. Keith was about to answer affirmatively before Lance continued “...for a year!” Keith’s eyes widened and his mouth hung open slightly. He clasped his wristband on and shook his head.

“No way a few surf lessons is worth the same as that,” Keith said, disbelief in his voice at the mere gall of the request.

“You’re _that_ sure I’ll win, hm?” Lance said, his smirk growing into that cocksure grin that Keith was almost starting to hate. Or love. Or want. Or whatever.

“No! Fine! For a whole year!” Keith felt his hands fist into tight balls as he glared at Lance, not knowing how to contain or direct his irritation. Lance snickered and clasped a hand to Keith’s shoulder. The sensation caused Keith’s chest to flutter and he cursed at himself for being so weak and predictable.

“Alright then. You’re on!” Lance said, the cunning look returning to his face as he finger-gunned with both hands at Keith. Keith could only shake his head and smirk in spite of himself and hope that Lance wasn’t as good as he claimed to be. Keith pulled his phone out to check the message that was undoubtedly from Pidge.

 

 

 

> 10:03PM
> 
> **> Pidge:** That was fuckin genius dude. U and Lance, on a beach. So romantic lol.

 

Keith rolled his eyes and put his phone back without responding.

 

+++++++

 

Keith groaned as Lance shot a pellet at a wooden spider, knocking it back and winning the third prize of the evening. He _was_ as good as he claimed to be. At least so far. He picked out a fuzzy purple elephant and handed it to Allura. Allura laughed and poked it’s trunk before squeezing it against her face.

“How adorable! Thank you, Lance. You’re a real sharpshooter,” Allura said excitedly.

The entire group was following Lance through the maze of game booths, all seemingly eager to see who would come out on top of the bet.

“Ha, I have many talents that come naturally to me,” Lance said with one of his more genuine smiles that Keith was fond of. He tried to steel himself against all of Lance’s charm, but it was hard when Lance seemed to be having such a good time. Watching him joke with Shay or Hunk or the others showed the side of him that Keith had been attracted to in the first place. He was magnetic and Keith’s eyes were almost consistently glued to him.

“So, surfing lessons, huh?” The group was walking to another gaming table to be determined by Lance, and Keith and Shiro were walking at a slightly slower pace behind the rest of the group. Keith sighed.

“I choked,” he said honestly.

“Yeah. Why didn’t you bet him for a date or something?” Shiro said with a teasing smile. Keith rolled his eyes and frowned.

“Yeah, force him to date me. That’s romantic,” Keith said, the sarcasm dripping from every word. Shiro chuckled.

“Well, I don’t know what your plan is, but Lance seems like an alright guy, first impressions aside,” Shiro said sincerely. Keith looked to his cousin, feeling his face heating up.

“I...still can’t believe he said that,” Keith said, his words meant as some sort of apology. Shiro held a hand up.

“His apology was sincere and his explanation made sense. I’d probably be impressed too if I saw someone with such a high-tech prosthetic since I know all about them. It was a reaction stemmed from curiosity. I get that,” Shiro said. Keith’s chest swelled with admiration. Shiro was so patient and forgiving with everyone. And so calm. He had that calm thing on lockdown. Keith couldn’t resist testing that zen.

“So what about Allura?” Keith said, trying his best to sound sly. He noticed the shift of pink color in Shiro’s cheeks and grinned. Apparently, he sounded sly enough.

“She’s really smart. She’s studying law. And she’s kind and generous too, as you’ve seen. You didn’t even offer to repay her by the way, moocher!” Shiro said with a nudge to Keith’s shoulder.

“Why would I?” Keith asked, genuinely confused. Shiro groaned.

“You’re awful,” Shiro said with a slight laugh. They caught up with the rest of the group, who were all huddled around Lance at a ring toss. Keith frowned in disbelief.

“At least pick some challenging games,” he said as he walked to Lance’s side. Lance had been crouched over, ring in hand, lifting and lowering it as he gauged distance for the bottle he wanted. Now he was standing straight, glaring over at Keith.

“You think this is an easy one?” Lance asked. Keith shrugged and looked at the several bottles that formed a rectangle in the center of the booth. Lance held out the ring to him and he took it. He eyed the bottles for a moment, decided which one he wanted and tossed the ring. It looped on the bottle and spun in place for a few seconds before landing. Their group cheered.

“Alright Keith!” Pidge said, punching him on the shoulder from behind. Keith hissed. They had sharp bony hands and the punch stung him for a moment.

“Okay, that _was_ an easy one with the lame prizes. I was going for one of those!” Lance said in a pompous tone, interrupting Keith’s sense of satisfaction. Keith’s eyes followed to where Lance’s finger was pointing and only then noticed an entire section of bottles he had not even seen when he walked up to the booth. There were at least 5 rows of bottles in an ascending order against the far wall of the booth. The bottles were larger with slightly wider necks, and their placement to each other was closer.

“You think you can get one of those?” Keith asked in disbelief. Lance shook his head.

“No, I’m going to get one of the ones in the corner!” Lance said, pointing even higher. Keiths’ eyes followed his finger once again and he noticed that on the two back corners of the booth, there were shelves with singular bottles with odd shaped necks that looked like a ring wouldn’t even fit around them.

“No way,” Keith said, laughing at the impossibility. Those had to be there for show. Lance smiled at the challenge in Keith’s tone and Keith felt a thud in his chest. Lance didn’t know it but each time he did that he was taking a year off of Keith’s life.

“Be quiet,” Lance said as he crouched again, lightly weighing the ring in his hand, and eyeing the distance. They all stood with held breath for almost a minute before Lance tossed it and missed entirely. Keith and Pidge both snorted. Lance smiled.

“That was my test throw,” he said, not a hint of defense in his voice. Another minute seemed to go by before Lance tossed again and his ring looped onto a bottled with a weird neck, that somehow spun the ring back up and away. Everyone was about to groan in disappointment when the ring flew onto one of the bottles in the back row against the wall.

“Holy shit!” Keith muttered under his breath as all of Lance’s friends hollered and hooted and cursed and cheered. His eyes wandered over to Lance who looked kind of shocked himself and was laughing with wide eyes and staring speechlessly at the ring.

“Well it’s not as big a prize but it’ll do,” Lance laughed. The booth man gruffly asked Lance which doll he wanted, and Lance picked a green alien doll with sunglasses. He offered it to Pidge. “For our own little Peridot,” Lance said with a smirk.

“Fuck yeah! Peridot’s the best and so is this little dude!” Pidge said, practically yanking the alien doll from Lance’s hand.

“You guys watch Steven Universe…” Keith mumbled, not really asking, just kind of surprised.

“You didn’t take us for a huge bunch of nerds?” Lance said with a snarky smile. Keith smirked.

“You? Definitely. Just surprised about the rest of them,” Keith said before clearing his throat. At that, Lance barked out a laugh and Keith almost timed the exact moment he felt the heat doing its usual crawl up his neck. But this time, it was a little different. He made Lance laugh. And he really wanted to do it again. He swallowed hard and tried to avert his attention and noticed Pidge hitting Allura’s elephant with their new alien.

“Pidge!” Allura said with exasperation hidden beneath a smile. Pidge snickered and held the alien up to Shay for examination. Shay was the first to receive a doll. It was a bright pink octopus. They exchanged dolls to give them a once over and then handed them back to each other, both claiming to have received the superior gift. When Pidge tried to grab Hunk's manatee doll, he held it out of their reach.

"Like I'm gonna let you get your mitts on this!" Hunk said. Pidge's expression dropped in defeat and they gave up trying to grab it. Keith smiled. He liked this group.

“Oh! Over there!” Allura called over excitedly. The group watched her pointing to the largest High Striker that Keith had ever seen, topped off with a witch on a broom.

“Allura, haven’t you already proved you’re the strongest like...a dozen times?” Lance said in a teasing tone. Allura looked back at him with a raised eyebrow as if he had just challenged her.  
“Well, maybe our new friends are better competition than the rest of you!” She replied and continued her quickened pace over to the strength tester.

“Oh brother,” Keith heard Pidge mumble under their breath.

“Is she serious?” Keith asked anyone who was willing to answer him. Hunk and Shay both laughed as if they were sharing a secret.

“She’s just showing off to your cousin,” Pidge said in a bratty tone.

“Oh,” Keith answered, watching Shiro follow her helplessly to the “game” if one could call it that. You just hit a pad with a hammer to see how high you could make a puck go. And usually, you didn’t even win anything but bragging rights. But maybe that was all Allura needed? Keith walked up beside Shiro.

“You gonna try that?” He asked while gesturing toward the game with a nod. Shiro offered a lopsided smile.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“I’ve seen you lift boxes and heavy stuff with your prosthetic, but this is kind of different. Do you have the range of motion required?” Keith asked him. He watched Shiro pull his prosthetic wrist into his hand.

“In theory, yes. But it hasn’t been something we’ve tested yet. Might be good...for research,” Shiro said, eyeing his cousin suspiciously. Keith smirked.

“Yeah. Well, your _research_ sure is pretty,” Keith said with an added eye roll. Shiro chuckled.

Speaking of pretty, Allura was already paying the attendant and tying her hair back into a bun quickly. Keith was kind of amazed at how easy it looked for her when it took him at least five minutes to properly pull his own hair back. He folded his arms and watched as she picked up the large mallet that was more than half her height. Keith noticed something a bit more fierce in her eyes than he had seen before. Her smile was more zealous too.

The others stood back a ways as she got into the proper stance. She gave the High Striker a once over, looking at the very tallest zone then back down at the pad she was to hit. She took one practice swing then slammed the mallet down. Everyone watched the puck fly all the way to the highest level and fall back down.

“Whoa!” Keith said over her friends’ polite clapping and hooting as the High Striker lit up and bells and whistles sounded off. The robotic witch at the top was complimenting Allura for her strength.

“She does this every year,” Pidge says, not sounding at all impressed. Allura turned her head to glance at Pidge over her shoulder.

“Would you like to give it a whirl then, tough stuff?” Allura goaded. Pidge stuck out their tongue.

“Yeah, because these puny arms are just _screaming_ Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson!” Pidge said, flexing an arm up. Allura giggled before her focused shifted to Keith.

“How about you, Keith? Let’s test _your_ strength!” She said with her usual winning smile. Keith shook his head, smiling awkwardly.

“I think you’ve already beaten everyone here by default,” Keith said.

“You won’t know until you try!” Allura said.

“Just do it, or she’ll never stop pestering you!” Shay said in a sweet tone. Allura laughed.

“Hey, I’m not that bad!” Allura said with a fake pout.

“You kinda are. At least about this thing,” Hunk added as he jutted his thumb towards the High Striker.

Keith surged with a similar feeling he’d had the night he had first come across these people. The feeling Lance had given him when he was alone in a crowd of strangers, yet still felt welcome and included. His entire group gave off the same feeling and Allura was extending an invitation that he felt weird about tossing away so nonchalantly.

“Okay,” Keith murmured, pulling off his plaid shirt and tying it around his waist.

“Alright, _Keith_!” Shiro cheered, clapping slowly. Keith shot him an annoyed glare to shut him up, but it had the opposite effect and Shiro merely cheered more loudly. Keith groaned as he took the mallet from Allura. She clapped excitedly. Keith pulled money from his pocket to pay, but Allura said it was already taken care of. Keith glanced quickly at Shiro, who didn’t seem to approve and looked over to Allura.

“Uh, I owe you,” Keith said awkwardly. Allura waved it off.

“Alright, Keith! Show us what you’re made of!” He heard Pidge from behind, and was suddenly aware that he was the center of attention in the group, which meant Lance was watching him. Suddenly the pressure was on him to at least get it higher than halfway or that guy wasn’t going to let him live it down, he bet. Plus he wasn’t dense enough not to realize he kind of wanted to impress him. Keith cleared his throat and took a couple of practice swings before bringing the mallet down on the pad. He tensed and watched the puck shoot up to the 70s section of the tower. Relief settled in as the group cheered him on.

“Whoa, dude. You look kinda shrimpy but you’re a real beefaroni under all the clothes,” Pidge said, coming up behind him and poking his bicep as they had earlier with Shiro. “Flex for us!” Pidge said with a wriggle to their eyebrows.

“No,” Keith said with a dismissive frown. Pidge grinned and Keith immediately realized his cheeks were flushed. He was so ready to kick Pidge in the shins. His eyes involuntarily wandered over to Lance, whose eyes were already fixated on him with raised brows. Keith tried to avoid his entire face turning crimson and looked over to Shiro and offered him the mallet.

“Research?” He asked. Shiro shrugged and nodded, grabbing the mallet with both hands. Keith stood back and Pidge was measuring his bicep, trying to wrap their thumbs and index fingers around it.

“Cut that out,” Keith scolded, trying to pull his arm up and away from them. Pidge clutched on and was easily lifted into the air. “You have a serious problem!” Keith said, trying to shake Pidge off of him. Pidge was laughing hysterically. Suddenly Lance came up and pulled them by the waist and Pidge released their grip.

“Sorry, the fair makes her flippin' bonkers,” Lance said, wrestling with Pidge in his arms. Finally, he dropped them and Pidge fell to the ground directly on their ass, letting out a loud “Ow!” Their little commotion stopped just in time to see Shiro get his hit into the 80s section of the tower.

“Whoa,” Lance said, his mouth hanging ajar as his eyes turned into dinner plates.

“Yeah,” Keith agreed, looking at his cousin admirably. Sure, there was a pang of jealousy and irritation that Shiro once again bested him, but it was definitely all trumped by how impressed he was.

“Well done. Well done!” Allura said clapping giddily. Keith watched as she jumped over and hugged Shiro around the shoulders excitedly. Shiro patted her back and she quickly pulled away as if she only then realized what she was doing. While Allura attempted to laugh off the blush from her face, Keith glanced over at Lance who was helping Pidge off the ground. Pidge was patting off their butt and looked at Shiro and Allura, then glanced up at Keith, probably thinking what he was. This had definitely turned into a blind date for the wrong couple.

 

+++++++

 

The group continued to wander around the gaming area. Keith had taken over choosing the games after accusing Lance of picking games he already knew how to win. Lance argued that that was the point of the bet but in the end agreed to let Keith choose, claiming he could beat any game at the fair.

It turned out not to be a boast or a lie. The next game was some kind of beanbag toss where he had to get a beanbag into a hole that looked smaller than the bag could fit through, but he did it with such ease that Keith thought somehow Lance had cheated. He did it three times in a row and Keith couldn’t hide his impressed enthusiasm. Lance mentioned he was a little league All-Star and Keith bit his tongue to keep from saying how adorable he thought that was. Lance won a decent-sized panda and handed it to Shiro. Shiro laughed and thanked him and Keith noticed the flush in Lance’s cheeks. Stupid Shiro had that effect on everyone, he knew, but it still didn’t stop him from feeling that familiar pang of jealousy.

The last game was a dart throwing game. It seemed simple enough, you just hit the mark you wanted to get the prize. The entire group was hyped up now. The entire bet was riding on this final game. Everyone was talking in hushed voices as Lance tried to line up the throw. He missed the first one, coming inches away from his intended mark.

“Practice throw,” Lance said. His voice wasn’t as smooth as it had been earlier. Keith definitely noticed a hint of nervousness lingering on his words. Keith sucked in his cheek to keep from smiling too much at the thought of his impending victory. Lance threw another dart and missed again. His shoulders slumped slightly. He only had three darts left. The group held their breath. Keith watched him use all of his darts up and pull more money out of his pocket to hand over to the vendor.

“Can you do that?” Shay asked in disbelief. Hunk was behind her, resting his head on her shoulder with his arms wrapped around her stomach.

“Yeah, isn’t that cheating?” Hunk asked. Lance’s shoulders raised and he turned his head towards them.  
“We didn’t _make_ any rules!” Lance snapped before turning back to the game and concentrating. He flicked his wrist a few times to get a feel for the dart and then tossed it, missing again. Keith watched as he used up the rest of the darts again and took more money out of his pocket. Pidge was snickering from behind and Keith almost felt bad for the guy. After he threw two more darts, Keith couldn’t handle it anymore.

“Your stance is all wrong!” Keith sounded irritated and he pulled back on Lance’s shoulder and pushed another hand up against his chest to get him to stand correctly. Once he fixed his posture he pulled his arm back to a higher position.

“Dude, are you _coaching_ me?” Lance was gazing at him over his--now lifted- shoulder and Keith’s brows furrowed and he stepped back from him.

“No,” he said hurriedly. Lance was grinning.

“I’m pretty sure that’s against the rules.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “We didn’t _make_ any rules, remember?” Keith smirked as he imitated Lance’s words from minutes before. There was an unusual expression on Lance’s face that Keith didn’t recognize and when Lance turned back towards the game, Keith squinted at him suspiciously. He gave up seconds later, realizing trying to decipher Lance’s expression was about as easy as trying to crack time travel.

Lance followed the advice Keith gave him and nearly hit his target. He looked over to Keith excitedly who only smiled in response and tried to ignore how the cute expression made him feel. Lance refocused and threw the remaining darts. The final one hit the mark and everyone cheered, though not as enthusiastically as Keith. When the vendor came up to Lance with the tiny doll options---seriously they were like the size of baby mice-- Lance shook his head.

“How many balloons do I need to pop for that one?” Lance asked, pointing to the large hanging dolls lining the sides of the booth. He appeared to have his eye on a large white and pink lion with a glittery mane.

“You’ll be here all night, kid,” the older man said to him.

“How many?” Lance asked again, this time a stern tone in his voice.

“Twenty,” the man said. Keith scrunched his brows and made a disgusted face.

“That’s a rip-off!” He said, a challenge in his voice.

“It is what it is,” the vendor said with a shrug. He wiggled the two dolls he already had in Lance’s face. A penguin and some hamster looking thing.

“Let’s just grab one of these, Lance. I wanna go on rides. You won!” Pidge said in a whiny tone.  
“You guys go ahead. I’m gonna win the lion,” Lance said confidently. “Gimme twenty darts, my man!” He said to the vendor as he slammed down more cash. The vendor looked irritated, but took the money and turned away to grab some more darts.

“You already won,” Keith said begrudgingly, realizing he’d have to put in work on Lance’s scooter in his off time. “Why are you doing this?” Lance’s posture stiffened a little as he grabbed the darts from the vendor. He turned his head towards Keith and had a sly look about him.

“I’m winning you that big lion so you have to carry it around all night as a reminder of your defeat!” He grinned wide as if he was trying to look like a jerk, but to Keith it looked like a veiled attempt at covering up a smile that came more naturally to him than anything. As Lance faced the game again, Keith tried to fight against the idea that Lance simply wanted to win him that lion for a far more pure reason. It was wishful thinking, he knew. Keith crossed his arms like they’d block down all the fuzzy feelings his heart was trying to send to his brain. Not today.

“Well, I’m bored! Let’s go on a coaster or something horrifically fast and unsafe!” Pidge said excitedly to the others of the group. Keith glanced at them, as they all agreed they were done with this little experiment.

“Alright, Lance, just text us when you’re done here, okay?” Hunk said.

“Yeah. Yeah, have fun guys!” Lance answered, distracted as he aimed another dart. The group started to move as a herd again and Keith stood in his spot with his arms folded over his chest, staring intently at Lance.

“Keith, you coming?” Shiro asked as he turned with the others.

“Go ahead. I need to make sure he doesn’t cheat,” Keith said. Shiro laughed, shrugging and turning back to catch up with the rest of the group.

“Oh my god! How would I even _cheat_?” Lanced groaned, squinting out a glare in Keith’s direction before refocusing on the balloons.

“All the money you’ve spent, you could probably buy the doll. This dude looks shady enough to just sell it to you,” Keith said, jutting his thumb out towards the vendor. The vendor raised an eyebrow in Keith’s direction but didn’t deny the claims. Lanced snorted.

“Dude! Geez,” he said in a harsh but amused tone. A few seconds later, he threw a dart and hit the mark.

“Only 18 to go,” Keith said as a smiled crawled onto his face.

“These balloons are dead meat,” Lance said in a boastful tone. Keith almost believed him.

 

+++++++

 

Another thirty minutes had passed, at least, before Lance was out of darts again. Fifteen. Fifteen darts had hit fifteen balloons and the rest amounted to reminders of his failure to win a huge--probably asbestos filled--lion. Lance had already used up the initial twenty darts _and_ five more he had bought afterward when he had come up short of destroyed balloons.

“If I wanna eat tonight, I gotta quit. So which one do you want?” Lance said, gesturing to some mid-sized dolls that his fifteen darts had won. Lance sounded completely dejected. All of his earlier confidence and enthusiasm had deflated out of him over the course of the game.

Keith moved his mouth from side to side as he stared at his choices of a pig, an alligator, and some kind of rainbow ostrich thing. He shook his head and scrunched his nose at them.

“I want that stupid pink lion now,” Keith mumbled. He pulled out his wallet and put more money down on the booth counter. The vendor practically groaned.

“Five more darts,” Keith said in a serious tone. He wasn’t exactly sure what had come over him. Maybe nothing was going to happen with Lance, but he was fixated on getting a decent memento--and story-- out of this completely absurd night (even if he didn’t really have a space for it in his apartment). He glanced up at Lance who was smiling at him with a surprised look on his face. Keith nodded towards the darts that the vendor placed on the table. He’d forgotten to feel nervous for a good solid minute, even when faced with one of Lance’s best smiles. Lance shrugged.

“Well, okay then,” he said cheerfully, picking up the dart gingerly. Keith noticed he spent even more time now, trying to perfect his stance, his posture, his aim. He was trying so hard and Keith found himself holding his breath as Lance made his first throw. It hit the mark and Keith exhaled loudly while Lance hooted in victory. Keith’s fists were clenched involuntarily as anticipation coursed through him. His arms raised slightly at the elbows as Lance aimed his next dart. When it hit, both he and Keith were shouting this time. In shock, in victory, Keith didn’t know or care, he just felt _excited_.

“You might actually do this,” Keith said through heavy breaths when his cheering had calmed down.

“You doubted me? That hurts man,” Lance said in a faux pained voice. Keith rolled his eyes and smiled as Lance lined up another shot. _Pop_. Another balloon was taken down and Lance was practically vibrating with a newfound energy. Keith was suddenly reminded of how much he wanted to kiss the man. Lance took down another balloon and Keith gulped. One left.

Lance stretched unnecessarily. He made a show of it after he realized how much the vendor wanted them both gone from his booth. It wasn’t like there was a line behind them or anything. Maybe he’d expected to have a slow night and Lance and his rascally gang of friends ruined it or something. Keith didn’t know, but he snickered as Lance spoke to the man regardless.

“Gotta keep limber. That’s the key,” he was saying.

“God, kid. Just throw the damn dart already!” The vendor finally said, unable to contain his poorly disguised malcontent. Keith laughed again, louder this time, drawing Lance’s attention to him. Keith felt his heart jump when he saw that Lance was looking at him like he had the night they met, casual, genuine and just goddamn attractive in a way that almost made Keith angry. Like, how dare Lance look at him with that face! The nerve. The absolute nerve. Then Lance’s eyebrows raised suspiciously and he smirked.

“I need a kiss for good luck!” He said playfully.

“Yeah right,” Keith said on reflex, pushing Lance’s shoulder away.

“Alright but if I miss this one, it’s entirely your fault,” Lance said, his enthusiasm diminished slightly. Keith's eyes widened as he realized he may have just accidentally passed up a legitimate opportunity to kiss the person he had dreamt of kissing all week. Before he had time to even fully process the information, he saw Lance throw another dart, followed by erratic jumping and swinging his arms around. Keith looked at the balloon board, but couldn’t tell if another balloon had been popped.

“You got it?!” Keith asked in excited shock. Lance stopped jumping, a laugh still on his lips.

“You missed my final throw? Are you serious right now?” Lance asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry,” Keith mumbled. Lance eyed him curiously before the vendor practically knocked him over with the lion.

“Now get out of here and don’t come back!” He said in a huff. Lance was cracking up against the fuzzy fur of the stuffed toy.

“Jesus dude, you need to work on your salesmanship,” Lance said.

“Wait!” Keith said. He took out one more bill and handed it to the vendor who glared at him with an intensity that gave Keith the feeling he might jump over his counter and attack him right there. “It’ll be quick!” Keith said. The vendor grabbed the money with his grubby hand and gave Keith the darts. In less than a minute, Keith had used every dart to pop a balloon.

“I’d like the dolphin,” Keith said to the vendor. The man grabbed it and shoved it at Keith and Keith turned toward Lance. He tried to bite back a smile when he saw the shock on Lance’s face. He held out the dolphin to Lance while he took the lion.

“Now you have something too,” Keith said plainly. Lance’s brows furrowed in a confused display. His grin looked almost vicious.

“I kind of hate you right now,” he said. Keith didn’t know Lance well enough to know if it was a joke or not, but the words pricked at his weak heart all the same.

“Then give back the dolphin. I’ll give it to someone else,” Keith said, holding out his hand. Lance swerved his body away from Keith, pulling the dolphin out of reach.

“No way. Fernando is mine!” Lance said before looking down at the dolphin and patting it on the head.

“Fernando? You named it? Already?” Keith said, trying to look over the enormous lion in his arms. He could feel the weird fabric of the sparkling mane tickling his neck.

“Of course. Aren’t you gonna name the lion?” Lance asked, pulling out his phone.

“Um...Lion?” Keith offered. Lance groaned.

“You’re hopeless, Keith,” Lance said. Keith squeezed at the lion slightly when Lance said his name. It wasn’t like before. There was a familiarity in it.

“Whatever. Are you texting the others?” Keith asked, eyeing the phone.

“Yeah. Pidge says they’re at the Scrambler. Or as it is aptly called here at the Scare Fair: the Bone-Rattler!” Lance smirked as he read his text. He looked up from the phone.

“So how come you’re so good at throwing darts? You a bar hopper or something?” Lance asked, stuffing the phone in his pocket as they began walking in the direction of their group.

“No. But it’s pretty similar to throwing knives,” Keith said indifferently. Keith was fidgeting with the huge lion in his arms and wondering if Lance had been serious about making him suffer by carrying it through the fair. It had only been a few minutes and he was already annoyed by the awkward size and shape of it.

“Oh....Wait _what_?” Lanced nearly shouted.

 

+++++++

 

The rest of the group was at the head of the line for the Bone-Rattler when Keith and Lance met up with them. The moment Pidge laid eyes on the lion they were howling with laughter.

“Holy shit, I can’t believe you actually got it. I thought you were gonna be there all night and then texting us for more money or something!” Keith rolled his tongue beneath his bottom lip, trying not to laugh at Pidge’s outburst as Lance grimaced in their direction. Despite their devious nature, Keith was definitely beginning to appreciate how honest and blunt Pidge could be.

“Oh _little_ ye of little faith,” Lance snarked. Pidge flipped him off as he offered a grin drenched in sarcasm. Keith leaned against the railing to the ride while Lance leaned over the railings that blocked off the line, facing his friends.

“Where’d you get that cute dolphin?” Shay asked, outstretching her arms to squeeze the plush blue dolphin in Lance’s arm. Keith watched Lance from behind, not failing to notice that his ears and neck were red suddenly.

“Keith won it to show off,” Lance said flatly. Keith glared at the back of his head, squeezing the lion’s neck a little too tightly and Pidge snorted.

“Let me guess, it only took you one try to win it?” Pidge asked, utterly amused. Keith nodded. “Yeah. Figures,” was all Pidge added before the ride operator asked for the group to step forward and into the ride’s arena. Pidge jumped into a carriage directly in between Shiro and Allura with a very amused grin directed at the latter. Allura raised a suspect eyebrow but said nothing. Shay and Hunk shared their own carriage, and Lance joined Keith at his railing to watch their friends spin around in circles and try not to throw up.

“I wasn’t showing off,” Keith said stubbornly. Lance raised his eyebrows and looked to him casually.

“If you say so, buddy,” Lance said in a disinterested tone that raised Keith’s hackles more than it should have. What was it with this guy? He was either constantly irritating Keith or immediately switching gears and damn near making him swoon. Was there no middle ground?

“I wasn’t,” Keith asserted. Lance shrugged and didn’t say anything else as they continued watching their friends spin around on the Bone-Rattler. Any time Pidge’s carriage would pass, Keith could _swear_ he heard them say “Now kiss!” but it couldn’t be verified over the noise of the loud machine and fair crowds.

When the ride was through, Pidge’s perfect nest of hair was somewhat splayed to the side and they had an endless smile on their face, even if Keith thought they looked a little disoriented. They weren’t the only one, though; all of them had the same zoned out smiles on their faces that come with being dizzy and laughing till you almost puke.

“I think I need something much slower next. Like...way slower, guys,” Hunk said, holding on to Shay’s shoulders as if they were the only thing keeping him on his feet.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Allura added, stumbling a little as she stepped forward. Shiro was, _of course_ , there to catch her arm and cause her cheeks to flush instantly. Keith didn’t want to feel bitter, but he was definitely fighting that urge with how disgustingly perfect his cousin and this beautiful woman were together. _Disgusting._

“Alright, let’s just go on the Ghost Train. You know that one where it’s slow and all that shit jumps out of you and it’s kinda _scary_ but it’s kind of funny too?” Pidge suggested.

“Sounds good,” Hunk said a little too quickly as they made their way down a crowd-filled aisle.

“I might sit that one out,” Shiro said. Keith looked to him with the most supportive smile he could offer. Shiro ruffled his hair--even though he knew Keith hated that--and smiled back. The two walked quietly behind the rest of their talkative group as they made their way to the next line.

The line for the next ride was short and Keith wasn’t even sure he wanted to ride it either. It looked kind of boring.

“I’ll hold this for you,” Shiro said, grabbing the huge lion from Keith, forcing him to get into the line after Lance and Pidge. Keith glared at him suspiciously but followed them in silence.

“Are you sure you won’t join us, Shiro?” Allura said with one last obvious plea. Shiro smiled weakly and shook his head.

“It’s not my kind of ride. You guys enjoy yourselves. I don’t mind waiting here,” he said as he stood by the ride’s exit. With that, it was Allura’s turn to get on, pulling Pidge along with her.  
“I need to speak with you,” she said seriously. Pidge raised their eyebrows but said nothing as Allura sat them in one of the carts of the ride and it locked down on their laps and moved forward. Shay and Hunk went into the next one, and it was only then that Keith noticed the carts only fit two. He hesitated as Lance walked up and sat in the next cart. The operator looked at Keith with dead eyes.

“You comin’?” She asked him in the most disinterested tone Keith had ever heard. It would have made him laugh if his stomach wasn’t fluttering. He looked up at Lance who was watching him expectantly.

“Um, do you want to ride alone?” Keith asked, cursing himself for sounding just as nervous as he felt. Lance looked at him as if Keith had asked him to solve a complicated math equation.

“Do _you_?” Lance parroted back to him. Keith’s face scrunched up in indecision.

“On or off, man? You’re holding up the line,” the heartless operator said impatiently. Her words lit a fire under him and he practically jumped up the steps and into the cart. It locked down on his lap as soon as his ass hit the seat and they started moving at the ride’s snail pace.

The doors had devils and goblins and witches painted all over it and as it opened they were practically enveloped in a thick fog. Dim lights of several colors shrouded over them as they continued forward through the track. Spiderwebs hung, blocking the view of monsters and creatures in corners until they were right on them. It was kind of cool, in a theatrical horror kind of way. Keith continued gazing around in silence as screams and evil laughter echoed through the chamber, and the occasional mechanical skeleton or monster would jump down or out from behind a column.

“I’m not ashamed of my Ruckus,” Lance suddenly said, breaking what had been at least two solid minutes of silence between the two of them. Keith tensed slightly and turned to Lance, who was reclined against the backrest of the cart, the dolphin hanging between his crossed arms.

“What?” Keith asked, confused as to where the statement was coming from.

“Earlier, when you asked me if I was embarrassed. I’m not. I love my...scooter. I just felt like...weird that Pidge was bringing it up when you obviously work on much cooler bikes. Honestly, I don’t even think I could ride a motorcycle. But anyway, I’m sorry for being kind of weird earlier. About that,” Lance added quickly as if the apology had been excruciating for him. Keith stared at him blankly, barely registering what Lance had said, mostly because he had not expected to hear any of it.

“Okay,” was all Keith could manage at the moment and Lance looked slightly chagrined by the lack of response.

“Okay,” he echoed, his attention drawn to a ghost hologram to their left. Keith’s mouth stretched to the side of his face and his lips tightened together as he thought.

It wasn’t that he had nothing to say to Lance. He could think of at least ten questions just on the Ruckus alone that he could ask Lance; to engage him in conversation. This was supposed to be his area of expertise, a conversation he could actually carry. Yet, he sat silently, feeling nervous and wondering why he ever thought trying to meet Lance again was a good idea when he was so bad at interaction with people he hadn’t known almost all his life.

“So you have a cat?” Keith heard the words fall out of his mouth in a panicked and loud kind of question and he almost slapped himself in the face.

“Huh?” Lance turned towards him as a dark shadow cast over their cart and some animatronic witch flew down laughing in a classic witchy voice. Great timing. Keith sighed and cleared his throat and the witch was gone and they were going into a section that looked like a dark cabin in the woods.

“You have a cat? I saw you buying cat food? Um, at the store?” Keith heard himself saying. He sounded so stupid. He knew it.

“Oh, yeah. Zap. Well, technically his name is Zafiro but he doesn’t respond to that,” Lance said casually.

“Zafiro? That’s an interesting name,” Keith said absently.

“It’s Sapphire in Spanish. Zap only has one eye, and he’s a Russian Blue. We got him from the shelter a couple months ago when we moved into our new place, me and Hunk, I mean. He’s kind of crotchety and doesn’t really like new people, but he gets along with us just fine,” Lance was rattling off information so easily. Keith stared at him with his mouth partially hanging open. Lance glanced at him and noticed his expression.

“What’s wrong?” Lance asked him with an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

“So you named your cat...after Sapphire..from…” Keith didn’t even want to finish the sentence.

“Steven Universe. Yes. We’ve already established you are among nerds. Did I just lose more cred or something?” Lance asked, waning on the annoyed side.

“No, it’s just uh. My cat, her name is Ruby...named after Ruby from Steven Universe because her fur is kind of the same colors...um. I just thought it was kind of…”

“No way. You’re making that up!” Lance chuckled in disbelief, shooting Keith an equally dubious look.

“No. I’m serious. I’ve had her for almost--AAAH!” Keith was so distracted by the conversation that he almost forgot they were still on a “spooky” ride, and when someone in a skeleton costume jumped out to scare them, he immediately went on defense and pushed the person away. Once he realized what he’d done he leaned over the protective bar to see if they were okay. He heard groaning and suddenly the ride halted.

“Oh god,” Keith said under his breath, hiding his face underneath his hands. Meanwhile, Lance was in a fit of hysterics, laughing so hard Keith thought he’d choke to death right there on the Ghost Train. Overhead lights came on and Keith could hear other operators running into the ride to check on their coworker. Keith sunk lower into his seat as Lance continued howling with laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also a lot of Steven Universe references. 
> 
> This chapter was going to be longer but then i thought maybe 15k for one chapter is too much. So the next chapter might be short. We'll see! Obviously, this isn't ending soon. I'll try for 10 chapters now. I'm terrible at planning though so don't hold me to anything.
> 
> Anyway your comments are golden and I love them and thank you for giving me the time of day.


	5. That Feeling When: Crushes Suck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, first of all, I'm going to admit that this chapter is the most self-indulgent thing I feel like I've written. I just really don't think I'll have time to do the Halloween one shot I wanted, so I had to fit a tiny bit of spooky stuff into this fic, so if it seems a little out of place, my apologies, but I couldn't resist. Probably not the best idea since I also have a tendency to ramble in my writing, but I just thought I'd give ya'll fair warning! 
> 
> (That being said, there is some FAKE gore/violence in this chapter!)
> 
> Also this chapter is not short like I thought it'd be. Whoops again!

**Saturday, October 17th**

 “I cannot _believe_ you almost got us kicked out of the park, Keith!” Pidge would not stop howling. Their face was so red Keith was genuinely starting to worry about their air flow situation. They were riding piggy-back on Shiro after collapsing minutes earlier from laughing so hard and holding up the group. Still, there appeared to be no end in sight.

Keith, meanwhile, had gone through every shade of red the moment he’d realized what he’d done to that poor fair employee. His only silver lining was that at least Lance’s laughter had halted when someone came over to ask what had happened. While Keith tried to explain what he had done, tripping over his words from embarrassment, Lance dove into the conversation with a calm demeanor and explained the situation to the park employee. It had taken about five minutes for the ride to start up again and clear everyone off.

Keith had hoped that would be the end of it, but when was he ever so lucky? He was met with fair security as he got off the ride and was escorted to a security booth while Lance explained to the others what had happened and they all followed behind. Keith had to explain he wasn’t drunk, or violent, “just startled!” to about five different people. After about thirty minutes of Keith biting his tongue and trying to remain calm for these people, he was finally released back to his group and was immediately met with Pidge’s shaky grin before they erupted with laughter.

Now, they were in line for some haunted hayride and Keith was slumped over, burying his face into his lion’s mane, unwilling to let the others see the depths of his shades of red while Pidge’s cackling and muttering could not be stopped.

“Like, what...what did...you think...it was?” Pidge barely managed to ask between laughs.

“Give it a rest, Pidge,” Lance said, not bothering to veil his irritation. Keith pulled his face up from the lion just in time to catch Lance looking away from him and back towards the front of the line.

“Alright, alright,” Pidge said through more laughter, though there now seemed to be _some_ attempt at stifling it. It took about another minute before they could actually subdue the rumblings that were still coming out in short breaths. With a final giggle, Pidge’s onslaught stopped completely.

“Well, just so you know,” Shay began in an aside to Keith, “there will be people jumping out as we go by on the hayride too.” Keith could tell she was just trying to be nice, but the fact that she had to bring it up made his face flare up again. He could hear Pidge snorting into their alien.

“Thanks,” Keith said in a pathetic voice that matched his mood.

 

+++++++

 

The group was in the line for at least another thirty minutes and Keith was content to just listen to the banter between friends. To say he was never really part of a group dynamic like this one, would be an understatement. A group to him usually consisted of just himself and Shiro. _This_ group of friends was intriguing and warm, two things Keith couldn’t say about most people he met. Keith had been prepared to feel like an outsider with them since his obvious newness to the fold would be trumped by friends with years of knowledge on each other. But no one made him feel that way. Not really. Whenever they thought they were delving too far into “inside joke” territory, someone would always reign in the conversation back to something that seemed more inclusive of the two new people in their group. It was a kindness Keith appreciated, even if he didn’t offer much to the conversation regardless.

Their group was large enough that they only had to share their hayride with one other couple. The bales were seemingly placed precariously throughout the cart but managed to also somehow form rows of seats at angles facing outwards. The couple got on first, taking a bale near the front on the right side. Lance had pushed Hunk and Shay ahead of him so that they would be at the front of the seating, and he would be right behind Hunk.

It was then that Pidge attempted to push Keith on beside Lance, which failed due to them having no real upper body strength to their name. Though, a quick pinch had Keith hopping up onto a bale and nearly slipping until Lance caught his hand and pulled him up. Keith was able to ignore how surprisingly strong Lance’s hand was just long enough to glare back at Pidge. He was met with Pidge’s smirking face, looking pretty proud of their behavior if Keith was any judge of their expressions by now. Keith took an awkward seat between Lance’s bale and the one Pidge was taking up while Allura and Shiro took seats behind them on the right side of the wagon. Worry began to trickle down Keith’s spine again.

Worry for his cousin--seriously, why was he going on a ride like this? It was literally a composite of all things Shiro didn’t like--and worry for himself for very obvious reasons. He would definitely need to stay focused on _this_ ride, and not try to chat up Lance again lest he befall the same terrible fate from the _Ghost Train Incident_ (as Pidge had amusedly dubbed it).

His attempt at making small talk with Lance was clearly his downfall last time. He was so focused on trying to say the right thing, on trying not to look at Lance too much but also trying to look at him enough in the way that people normally do in conversations that he was in his own little bubble of stress by the time that employee jumped in. Or maybe it was just the universe was trying to tell him something. _Give it up, Lance is a lost cause; if you don’t, someone is bound to end up in traction._

The cart started and Keith leaned on the stuffed lion in his lap, looking around at the night sky as the driver gave his rehearsed spiel about the ride, the path they were taking, the haunted grounds they would be traversing. This guy was on his game, surprisingly enough. While the game attendants and other ride operators were barely functioning human beings, this guy was very much into the spirit of things. Keith relaxed slightly and his leg fell against Lance’s. He pulled it away, but not before noticing the tension in Lance. He looked over and, in the moonlight, could barely make out a look of deep concentration, or maybe...worry plainly etched into Lance’s face. He was also clutching to Fernando so tightly, Keith thought he might pop the dolphin open.

“Um, are you okay?” Keith said in a hushed voice, trying not to interrupt the driver’s speech. Lance jerked his head towards Keith and made an obvious attempt to calm his expression.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Um yeah,” Lance said in a hurried voice before looking out into the dark trees.

“Be wary, my charges, for the bridge we are about to cross is the final resting place of William Bennett and Moira Desperaux, two star-crossed lovers driven to dire circumstance when their families tried to keep them apart. It is said that under a crescent moon, like tonight’s, the ghosts of the lovers can be spotted, ready to drag any happy couples down to the depths with them below to a watery grave!”

Keith wanted to feel spooked. He wanted a chill to go up his spine, but there were too many external circumstances that were not letting him feel afraid. His embarrassment and general nervousness in regards to Lance were masking any trickle of a chill that tried to come through. Plus, he looked at the shallowness of the stream beneath and realized it was hardly deep enough to drag anyone to any depth. He could probably lay down on his back in it and be completely fine.

The gravel below turned to the hard planks of the bridge beneath them and Keith could swear he heard Lance gasp. He looked over but was suddenly distracted by low moaning. More than one voice...coming from below the bridge? Suddenly they all heard a woman wailing beneath their feet. The chill forced itself up his neck and his arms prickled. Clever. The cart slowed down.

“That’s strange. Seems to be some engine troubles. Folks, please bear with me while I attempt to...wait, what’s that noise?” The driver was saying. Keith held his breath, waiting for something to happen. The cart came to a complete stop with a classic creak on the wheels, but still the bridge groaned and creaked beneath them. The groaning and wailing continued. Keith could practically feel Pidge vibrating with their knees shaking beside him.

Suddenly Allura screamed and Keith turned around to see a hand had grabbed onto the ledge of the right side of the cart between her and the couple. Keith watched her back into Shiro who was already wrapping his arm around her as if to protect her from whatever the hell was crawling onto the wagon. Another hand slammed onto the cart and a decrepit, zombie looking woman pulled herself up, gripping the woman’s leg. The woman shrieked, grabbing for who Keith assumed was her husband or something as he attempted to pull her back onto the hay. The driver was shouting at the engine, trying to start it up again while also trying to reassure the passengers.

Pidge was gripping onto Keith’s arm as they looked over, shrieking and laughing in equal measure and Keith had no idea what was going on. His focus switched to Lance, who was gripping the back of Hunk’s arm for dear life. Pidge screamed bloody murder into his ear in the next moment, forcing his attention back on them, and realized someone was standing at the back of the wagon, lumbering towards it slowly in the darkness.

“Whoa mama!” Pidge shouted, pressing into Keith as they pressed their feet against the back of the wagon to get more space between them and the lumbering figure. Keith turned his head again and it looked like the woman was about to be dragged away when the engine started up again.

“We’re getting out of here folks! Just hold on!” The driver said and the wagon was back in motion and the grip on the woman slipped away as they finished their short trek over the bridge. Keith turned back towards the back of the wagon where the figure had been and noticed it was now helping up the zombie bride-looking woman. Keith’s eyes stayed glued on the figures as they watched the wagon leave. Then the ride took a turn around the bend and the couple disappeared into the fog.

“That was so cool,” Keith said under his breath towards Pidge. Pidge merely nodded with a giddy look on their face.

“What the fuck? What the FUCK was that?” The woman was shrieking. “They shouldn’t be grabbing people like that!” She screamed.

“When we get off this thing, we’re filing a goddamned complaint!” The man with her sneered at the driver. Keith rolled his eyes and looked to Lance, who had let go of Hunk and was gripping onto the dolphin again.

“I’m so sorry folks. I _did_ warn you, though,” the driver said. His tone was not as apologetic as it was mysterious. Unsettling. They were winding around a wooded area now, and the driver spoke up again.

“Okay folks, I must ask you to remain _deathly_ silent during this next stretch. This forest isn’t exactly vacant. For you see, when settlers first started expanding to California, many _many_ colonials lost their lives before ever reaching the promised land. It just so happens that this particular wood is host to several souls of children left behind by parents that had been taken by consumption or dysentery and worse. Many a child lost their lives in these very woods and they do _hate_ being disturbed by adults,” the driver said quietly. The wagon slowed to a crawl in an attempt to quiet the engine. The woman riding with them scoffed.

Keith found himself staring at Lance. He wanted to look away, but his neck wasn’t exactly cooperating. He was pretty sure Lance was doing his best to try not to appear scared, but his body language gave him away so easily. It was unbelievably endearing. Lance was spooked.

He was pulled out of his train of thought momentarily when he thought he heard something coming from behind the trees. Laughter. Singing. The creepiest singing he’d ever heard. Was that _really_ children? Did they really hire kids to come out and act for this thing? That would definitely be some dedication. Keith’s eyes fell on Lance again and he was holding the dolphin up to his chin, looking out into the forest, squinting.

Bales of hay were not the best surface to slide one’s bottom across, as Keith quickly found out when he tried to do so. He had managed to inch closer to Lance, fearing the action was maybe a bit more obvious than he’d wanted. He hadn't exactly planned to do it. He just felt the overwhelming need to surround Lance; to shield him from whatever was lurking in the forest. It was stupid, probably. He knew that. There was no reason for him to feel this way. They were on a ride and Lance looked pretty capable of taking care of himself--not that Keith was paying too much attention to Lance’s body or anything. Not that--but still, it happened and Keith sat with it. With a feeling that Lance was pulling out of him; as if there was a knot tied beneath his ribs on which only Lance seemed to have a grip.

Pidge definitely noticed he’d moved closer towards Lance, and gave Keith’s ankle a small kick. Keith let out a quick groan. It was then that the entire group held their breath, hearing the creepy singing and laughter change to hissing and rabid growls.

“Oh no,” the driver whispered. “Now, I told you all to be silent!” His voice sounded horror-stricken.

Suddenly they were surrounded by shrieks of angry children echoing through the woods, though Keith couldn’t see anything in the darkness even with his eyes adjusted. Then there was a banging and Keith could only assume it was the sound of several small hands hitting the sides of the wagon that kept the passengers inside. He tried to lean forward to see if his guess was right, but instead something strange and amazing happened.

Lance was leaning back into his chest, distancing himself from the banging sounds.

It was all Keith could do not to wrap an arm around him. If Lance ever decided to ask Keith why his heart was thudding against his back, he’d just say he was scared because it would be far easier than admitting he was hopelessly and pathetically overwhelmed by the slightest physical interaction with him. His heartbeat was so loud in his own ears that it was practically drowning out the terrified screams from the woman in their wagon.

The wagon sped up again and the thudding on the sides stopped and Keith looked back but saw no signs of any children on the road as they practically bounced away at top speed--well top speed for a rickety wagon. Lance straightened up and cleared his throat, acting as if he hadn’t just collided into Keith from fear of demon children stealing him away in the night. Keith pulled his lips into a thin line, trying to bite down that smile that was twitching in his cheeks and decided to look around the wagon to see how the rest of the group was faring.

Shay was completely curled up in Hunk’s thick arms like it was the most natural thing and Keith couldn’t tell if she’d gotten frightened or if that was just how they always were; they always seemed to be attached in some manner or another, and it was sweet even if it made Keith realize just how much he missed that kind of physical connection. He specifically avoided glancing at Lance as he turned to his other side. Pidge had retreated to the small bale of hay in the center of the wagon and Keith resisted the urge to snicker and make fun of them.

Lastly, he turned to Allura and Shiro, who weren’t in each other’s arms--thank god, though. He could only handle so much romance blossoming around him for one night, he needed respite--but were practically pressed shoulder to shoulder as they waited for the next scare tactic. Keith’s eyes were moving around the wagon and he suddenly noticed something amiss.

“Where...did the woman go?” Keith asked flatly. Everyone in the wagon turned toward the now vacant spot between Allura and the man.  
“Leanne?” The male passenger called out, confusion and fear flooding through his voice.

“Hm. I thought we got away a bit easy. Must be they took her and felt satisfied,” the driver said, still using his mysterious voice, not breaking character for a second. Keith would have laughed if one of the people on the ride hadn’t just vanished.

“What the _fuck_ , dude? Stop the wagon! We have to go back and find her!” The man shouted angrily.

“You want to risk going back for her be my guest, but I’ve got a schedule to keep and I’d like to keep the meat on my bones tonight!” The driver said. The man looked enraged, but swallowed hard, pausing to deliberate the choices in his head.

In the end, the man decided, shakily, to stay with the group, convincing himself that she’d be found by the next wagon coming down the road. Keith was astounded. He didn’t even know most of these people that well but he would definitely stop to go search for any one of them. He glanced at Lance who was raising an eyebrow at him and grinning.

“I swear to god, Keith, if I disappear off this hell ride and you don’t stop to look for me, you can cancel our newfound friendship,” Lance said, a lilt in his voice that Keith assumed was teasing.

“Well yeah. Because you’d be dead,” Keith deadpanned quietly. Both Pidge and Lance snorted in laughter and Keith felt satisfied that he’d been able to make Lance laugh for a second time that night. Keith shifted the lion in his arms to get a better grip on it before muttering in an aside to Lance.

“I’d go back for you,” he said in an absent-minded kind of way that didn’t really have much emotion behind. He stared straight out into the night but did not fail to notice in his periphery that Lance was looking at him again.

 

+++++++

 

The ride continued in the same manner for another ten or so minutes. No one was really keeping track because the scare tactics the fair was using were very effective. Keith was not one for fairs or amusement parks and didn’t really have something to compare the experience to, but he was definitely impressed with the attention to detail the park had used for this ride. It was about the fifteen-minute mark when they were pulling up on some kind of main attraction for the ride and Keith noticed that the man who’d abandoned his wife or whatever was also missing.

“Um, when did he disappear?” Pidge asked when they noticed Keith’s gaze at the empty bale of hay.

“I saw the Butcher take him when we passed by his cabin. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer fella if you ask me!” The driver said with a hacking laugh. The group laughed uncomfortably. Logically, Keith knew this was all part of the attraction. No way would an operator be so calm over missing guests. Right? Or did this just happen often enough that it was normal to them? Keith stopped wondering about it when they pulled up to the final attraction.

“Devil’s Pass, I hope you’ve all confessed recently. The Devil can smell a sinner a mile away. Better hope he doesn’t want to welcome you into his home,” the driver was saying. Keith was staring at the craftsmanship of the stage. Gargoyles and smaller, creepier carvings covered the dais and walls. Flames illuminated the stage and there was a soft orange glow to all of it. Skulls on pikes stuck out as if a warning sign, or just aesthetic for the Devil’s Gate, Keith couldn’t say. It was all just _very_ cool.

The centerpiece of the stage was a golden statue of someone’s interpretation of the devil staged in front of a throne made entirely of skulls and ribcages. The statue was cloaked in a long shimmering fur cape coated in gold paint, maybe. A golden trident dripping with blood was in it’s hands as it glared out at the passing wagon. Large winding horns poked through a mess of matted hair which went with the massive beard that covered a dirty snarl on the “devil’s” lips.

Keith felt impressed rather than fearful of how creepy the figure managed to be. The face was artfully crafted, hyper-realistic, drawing Keith’s attention towards the eyes. Eyes that seemed to follow you whenever you moved. It only enhanced the creepy effects.

Only it wasn’t an effect. The creature threw back it’s cape and began charging at the wagon at top speed. What was most unsettling was that as it left the stage, the ground felt like it was shaking, _sounded_ like it was shaking. Keith reflexively jerked back into Lance as the _Devil_ gained ground on the wagon. Keith was closest within its reach and he really didn’t want to be touched by some dude in one of the freakiest costumes he had ever seen. Fake or not. He felt Lance’s arm latch over his own and his other arm wrapped around both Keith and the stuffed lion as the _Devil_ waved his trident in the air and brought it down on the wagon, leaving a chip in the wood and forcing a scream from practically everyone in the cart--including a shriek from Lance that might have made Keith melt if he had not been so preoccupied with other things.

“Alright, dead weight, get off! Which one of you sinners is he after? I’m too beautiful to die for any one of ya!” The man was shouting over the noise of the cart and the loud thundering roar of the _Devil_.

“Pidge! That’s your cue!” Lance screamed at them.

“Hell no! I’ve still got so much sinning left to do!” Pidge’s voice was giddy but Keith thought he detected a hint of fear in it. Suddenly the _Devil_ picked up its pace and was practically caught up with the wagon.

“Um…” Keith said, before Lance’s grip on him tightened.

“This is unreal! Holy crow!” He heard Hunk say from behind them, sounding more scared than Pidge.

“ _Confess!_  Confess your sins and maybe he’ll leave us be!” The driver was saying in a manic tone, screaming it out at the top of his lungs. The _Devil_ ran past them and with a disgusting squelching noise, the shouts of the driver stopped and the _Devil_ was laughing viciously. Keith sat up and could see the figure holding something dripping wet in one of his hands as he finally slowed his pace.

He turned to look at the driver and the head was cleared off. Keith was pretty sure everyone in the wagon but himself and Shiro were shrieking at that point. Shiro was, however, chanting “oh god oh god oh god” over and over unironically. The wagon twisted and turned over the road, shaking and bumping so hard Keith thought it might fall apart.

Lance’s grip was still firm on one of his arms and Keith tried to use it to balance himself on the ride but instead got thrown into him, knocking both of them off the hay and onto the floor of the wagon beside Pidge’s small hay bale. Keith tried to pull himself off of Lance but the ride was too shaky and he only ended up falling back down on Lance and forcing a groan from him; he --luckily-- narrowly missed elbowing him in the throat. Suddenly Lance’s arms were gripped around his shoulders tightly, holding their bodies together awkwardly.

“Just stay still until it stops, or you’re gonna kill me!” Lance shouted. Pidge was laughing hysterically at the two of them as they bounced around on the bottom of the wagon. A few more sharp turns and a quick descent down a shallow hill and the wagon rolled to a slow stop, continuing down the path to the ride’s exit in a steady line.

Keith tried to pull himself up again and Lance’s grip hesitated before letting him go. The both of them climbed back onto the hay in time to see that the driver and the couple from before were all waiting for them as they moved through a final stop before they passed through a wooden gate that blocked off the front section of the ride where people were getting on.

“Enjoy the rest of your stay at the Scare Fair,” the driver said in his same old spooky, mysterious voice as they passed him by. Keith found purchase on the ground and heaved himself up onto the hay, panting slightly.

“That was _amazing_!” Keith said through a cough, wide-eyed as he looked around at the others. Lance was getting back to his own seat, dusting off his clothes.

“Yeah, it’s probably the best ride they have. It gets more crowded the longer you wait till Halloween. We had to wait almost two hours last year. But it’s always different, so always worth the wait,” Lance said, flashing a smile that tugged at the part of Keith’s brain that worked speech. He swallowed, trying to remember how to form words.

“Thanks for, uh, the save back there?” Keith said, referring to when Lance had held him as they got chased down by the Devil himself. The wagon halted at the gate and Shiro was already holding Allura’s hand to help her down. Pidge hopped off and Keith stood to follow, noticing the driver walking back up to take his place on the wagon again.

“I just didn’t want you to lose the lion. I put way too much work into winning that for you to drop it in the middle of nowhere!” Lance said in a joking tone that Keith didn’t necessarily feel ruffled by this time. It was more like he was allowed in on the joke instead of being the brunt of it. He jumped down from the wagon, hiding his compulsory smile in the lion’s mane.

 

+++++++

 

It was almost one in the morning by the time the wagon ride was over. The park was only open for another hour and a half so the group decided to double down on efforts and attempt to tackle as much of the fair as possible within the limited timeframe. They were able to get five more general carnival rides in and one more spooky “ride”, which turned out to just be a dark maze where people ran into each other and screamed as lights flickered briefly to give you a sense of where you were.

Both Shiro and Allura sat that one out--after some convincing, Shiro had managed to get Allura to at least let him buy them some coffee and a funnel cake to share--and Keith regretted not doing the same when he got separated from the rest of the group and had to find his way out on his own, running into other frantic guests, laughing and screaming and annoying the hell out of him. When he finally got out of the maze, the others were all waiting for him at the exit, looking amused and tired.

“Why did you let go of my hand?” Pidge asked, sounding a bit grumpy.

“The snake has never failed us before. Keith, you’re an anomaly and I mean that in the best way. I swear,” Hunk said, a hint of laughter underlying his tone. The "snake" he was referring to was that they all just got in a line and held hands to make their way through the maze.

“I got pushed by some jerk,” Keith said, not bothering to hide the irritation in his own tone.

“Well, it’s too late to get a bite now. The place is closing in ten minutes. I suggest carwash tacos,” Shay said. Everyone but Keith, Shiro, and Allura agreed enthusiastically.

“Not me, I’m afraid. I’ve got a lot of homework this weekend and I’m already likely to sleep in tomorrow so it’s going to cut into my time,” Allura said with a dainty yawn.

“I’m out too, guys. I have a lot to do tomorrow as well,” Shiro said. Keith felt kind of disappointed that the night was ending so abruptly. Apparently, Shiro read his mood in seconds.

“If you want to join them, Keith, I can take Allura home and you can go with them in their car. If that’s alright with you, Hunk?”

“Of course! The more the merrier!” Hunk said happily, and Keith could tell he meant that.

“Cool. Thanks,” Keith said timidly. Hunk waved the thanks away as though they were completely unnecessary. Keith fell into a steady gait, walking beside Shay and Lance while Pidge and Hunk tried to get in some last minute shop-talk before Shiro was ripped away from them for the evening.

The group continued chatting until they reached the cars. Shiro hugged Keith good-bye, warning him to stay safe and text him if he needed anything, and Allura was hugging the others goodbye as well, getting the same speech from them, likely. Allura wrestled Pidge into a hug before turning towards Keith.

“It was a pleasure to meet you, Keith. I hope it won’t be the last time we cross paths!” Allura said. She leaned in for a light hug.

Keith couldn’t stop himself from growing tense at the contact. He was not really the hugging type and it definitely showed in his frigid reaction. But he patted Allura’s back and tried to remain polite and open-minded so as not to embarrass Shiro at least.

Keith shot a glance at his cousin, who was giving him a very discreet thumbs up. Keith rolled his eyes and turned back towards the group he was leaving with. Hunk and Shay were already making their way into the front seat of his station wagon and Lance was crawling inside to get a window seat in the back.

“I call the other window seat so get your booty in there!” Pidge said, the lazy lilt in their voice still couldn’t mask the brattiness. Keith was too tired to argue and pushed the lion into the trunk space before scooting in next to Lance. Pidge toppled in after them and shut the door.

“So what are car wash tacos?” Keith asked before quickly being bombarded with four different answers from all directions.

 

+++++++

 

The ride back to LA was pretty uneventful. Lance was checking his phone most of the time and Keith was trying to keep from nodding off while Shay and Hunk talked over the radio station that Hunk had tuned to. Pidge fell asleep against his shoulder and when they arrived at their destination he shook it abruptly to wake them up. Pidge yawned and stretched and Lance was already getting out of his door, stretching. Keith was too tired to not pay attention to the way Lance’s long hands pushed into the arch of his back as he stretched, bringing more attention to his trim waist that Keith had pretty much ignored all night when surrounded by the sights and sounds of the fair. In his dreamy, half-asleep state, he was suddenly reminded how extremely attractive Lance was.

Keith yawned and followed Pidge out of their door to force himself to look away from Lance. They were parked at a closed car wash on the corner of an intersection. The glow from the streetlights didn’t seem to touch past the corners of the parking lot, leaving the group shrouded in a considerable darkness. There was only the dim fluorescent glow of lights coming from the opposite end of the parking lot. Keith raised a dubious eyebrow at the taco truck parked in that corner.

Various people were huddled or standing around, presumably customers for the truck. Shay was already walking up with Hunk, arms around each other. Keith couldn’t hold in a fond sigh at the sight of them. Lance was trailing behind them and Keith waited for Pidge so that they didn’t walk alone in the dark.

The closer Keith got, the better he could hear the sizzling of the grill and the music playing from inside the truck; some popular hits station. It was divey, and maybe a little seedy, but Shay was already in the front of the line, chatting in Spanish with the man at the truck’s serving window. Any place Shay Approved™ couldn’t be that shady. Keith stood behind Lance.

“So what’s good here?” Keith asked, trying to stifle a yawn. Upon smelling the meats and spices from the truck, he was only then in tune with how hungry he was. He hadn’t eaten in almost ten hours.

“Anything is good. Except the carne asada fries. Those are kinda garbage here. But their burritos are delish and so are their tacos. Al pastor or lengua are probably my faves, but their carnitas are pretty good too. Are you a vegetarian or anything? Ha, I guess we should have asked that first since this place isn’t veggie friendly,” Lance was saying. Keith glanced at the menu, then back to Lance.

“No, not a vegetarian. But uh, I don’t recognize anything but carnitas.” Keith’s hunger and slight drowsy feeling took the edge off of talking to the others. “Don’t judge me, but my knowledge of burritos and tacos is pretty limited. I go to Chipotle like twice a year maybe,” Keith admitted. Lance groaned into a laugh.

“Keith, you’re killing me. I mean Chipotle’s alright I guess. But you’re telling me you live in LA and you don’t know anything about some good burritos? You deprived little man. You’re as bad as Pidge,” Lance said, shooting a smirk off in Pidge’s direction.

“Whatever, Lance. I’ve learned my fair share after hanging out with you guys. Besides, I’m not even from LA originally, so at least I have an excuse!” Pidge said defensively.

“I’m not from here either,” Keith told them. Lance raised an eyebrow.

“Oh yeah? Where do you hail from?”

“My family’s actually from the San Jose area. We moved down here when I was fifteen,” Keith explained. Pidge groaned.

“So what, that’s like seven years ago? Plenty of time to find a good burrito!” Pidge nudged him in his ribs and then cut in line in front of Lance.

“You brat!” Lance said to Pidge, before saying something in Spanish to the guy at the window. The guy laughed and Pidge looked back to glare at Lance.

“If you told him to put anything weird in my tacos, I will destroy you. And you know I can do it. I have the power!” Pidge said, before turning back to the guy. Lance chuckled and shifted his attention back to Keith.

“She’s right, though. Seven years is a long time not to know a decent burrito spot besides _Chipotle,”_ Lance said the last word with a bit of mock in his tone. Keith shrugged.

“I don’t eat out much. It’s not a crime!” Keith said, perhaps sounding a little more defensive than he intended. Lance offered a tired smile in response and Keith noticed the thud in his chest; fainter than before, but still there. Was he finally becoming desensitized?

“Fair enough. I’ll order for you then. Anything you don’t eat?” Lance looked at him curiously, as though he was studying his face. He locked onto Keith’s eyes in a way he hadn’t before and it took every fiber of Keith’s being not to avert his gaze like he usually would.

“Nah, I’ll try whatever. Though maybe not pork right now?”

“Alright. No Babe. Got it,” Lance said before turning around toward the window and speaking in rapid Spanish with the guy. They joked around a lot and seemed like old friends almost. Keith was starting to understand a little more about what Pidge had said to him in the cafe. Man of many acquaintances, indeed.

Keith understood a word or two, because you _don’t_ live in LA for seven years without picking up a word or two of Spanish. Still, he had no idea of the exchange that happened when they stop talking, but he assumed their order had been taken when Lance paid and fist bumped him. The guy handed him two bottles of soda, an orange and a yellow, and Lance pulled them down and offered another quick “thanks” before moving down the truck to what looked like a condiment station.

“They only have Jarritos here. Do you drink soda? What color?”

“Um, sometimes. What flavor is yellow?” Keith asked.

“It’s a surprise. Gotta pick to find out.” Lance grinned, holding up both bottles towards Keith. Keith just took the yellow one and Lance laughed as if he’d just gotten away with something.

“Ha! Sucker. I hope you like pineapple because I’ll be over here drinking my precious and rarely stocked mango soda!” Lance made a show of it by holding the bottle against his cheek and kissing it lightly. It was becoming more and more apparent what a huge nerd Lance actually was, and Keith felt slightly less intimidated by being in his vicinity. Slightly. With that small amount of nervousness gone, he suddenly remembered how Shiro would have told him to behave.

“Oh, how much do I owe you?” Keith asked as Lance was looking over the condiments. Lance shrugged, not looking up from the table.

“Get me next time,” he said absently. Keith’s cheeks felt hot for a second. _Next time?_ Was this not a one time deal? There would be a next time?

“Uh..oh. Oka--” Keith started, but Lance was already going into a little speech about how Keith needed to pay very important attention to the items on this table. They would make or break his burrito. He pointed to each item and explained what it was in a very overly descriptive and dramatic way, like he was narrating a story. Keith could feel the corners of his mouth tugging at his lips as Lance continued. He was just so...precious. Keith almost swallowed in disgust at where his mind wandered. Precious was not a word he’d use to even describe his own cat, and she actually was _precious_.

“Now, the burritos are like super huge, so I know you’re thinking, hey I guess I better get two of these little cups of sauce. But, Keith, you would be wrong in thinking that. Because you’re going to actually need at least five of whatever little cup of flavor you’re going to be adding to your burrito. Hey-- are you paying attention?” Keith realized he was scowling a little and nodded.

“Five cups, flavor correctly or a curse will befall my household,” Keith joked. Lance let out an abrupt chuckle.

“So you _were_ listening,” he said before picking up handfuls of tiny plastic containers and handing them to Keith. Keith smiled helplessly.

Helpless was an apt word. Because Keith literally could not keep his mouth from twitching upwards. The feeling was dulled out earlier, by the group, the lights, the attractions at the park. Keith could fight it off because there were so many distractions. Now it was only Lance again and it was impossible to ignore the stirring in his stomach, moving around and up his chest, like a snake slithering around his organs, making him feel nervous and almost like laughing.

Keith used the opportunity of Lance being distracted with filing his plastic cups and stared at him with an intense focus for a moment. Taking in the curves of his cheekbones and the extremely faint freckles dappled on his cheeks like someone had just thrown them there and Lance had never bothered washing them off.

Keith did not have a type, not really. But for some reason, everything about Lance’s face was pressing on every one of Keith’s buttons. His thin nose that pointed up, to his large blue eyes, to his perfect eyebrows--seriously this guy had to maintain them, no eyebrows were that well-shaped naturally--his brown eyelashes that kind of stuck out more in the harsh light of the fluorescents of the taco truck. Everything went together so well; his soft looking lips and sincere smile were just the icing on the perfect cake. Keith heard himself sigh in frustration at how much he suddenly _wanted_ , and quickly looked down at the condiment table.

“Something wrong? Are the choices too overwhelming?” Lance said. There was a concern in his voice, masked slightly by the way he chose to sound amused.

“I guess. Just tell me your favorites and I’ll try them since I don’t even know what you ordered,” Keith answered, glad he had an excuse ready. Lance handed his baggy of toppings and sauce containers to Keith and started filling Keith’s little containers.

Keith didn’t dare look at Lance again and looked around for the others instead. The three of them had already been served and were seated on a curb, eating their food. As if on cue, the grill cook at the back end of the truck called out their order through the window and Lance bagged the condiments and walked quickly to go grab them. The two then walked to join the others. Keith was astonished to watch Pidge stuff a taco into their mouth in no more than two bites. And they had an entire foil-covered paper plate covered in more tacos.

Lance took a seat beside Hunk, and Keith sat on his other side, watching the others dress their food up with the items they'd picked up from the table. Keith copied whatever Lance was doing, and was relieved that when he took a bite, his food tasted great. 

 

Contented, the group continued eating in silence for a while. Pidge was first to finish--throwing Keith completely. He had no idea how Pidge fit all those tacos into their tiny stomach-- and Shay finished shortly afterward so they decided to walk down the street a bit to find a Pokemon that was supposed to be lurking about. Hunk kept a watchful eye on them as he continued chowing down on his own meal.

“So, we really haven’t gotten into the gritty meat of things yet,” Lance said to Keith with a devilish grin on his lips. He stuffed his burrito into his mouth again and it came out half the size it had been. It was kind of disgusting and impressive all rolled into one. Lance wiped some rice off the corner of his mouth while Keith raised a curious eyebrow.

“Gritty meat? In the burrito? What?” Keith asked cautiously.

“No. About you. Your dark secrets. The important questions. Who is the man behind the mullet?” Lance asked in his best radio voice impersonation. Keith frowned.

“It’s not a mullet,” he said. Lance smiled and shrugged. “And what are you getting at?” Keith asked, feeling the nervousness creep up in his chest again.

“Alright, I’m just gonna come out and ask,” Lance said, before pausing for effect. “What’s your favorite movie?” Lance asked, amused by the anti-climatic impact of his question. Keith grimaced at the pointless build up, but also because he didn’t have a favorite movie. Did he?

“What’s yours?” Keith tried to deflect and give himself some time to think.

“Oh no you don’t. I asked first,” Lance rebuffed instantly.

“Ugh. Fine. I mean I guess, I don’t know. I like _Drive_?” Lance grimaced at his answer.

“Isn’t that movie super violent? You like that kind of stuff?” Lance almost looked disappointed and Keith felt defensive.

“It’s more like an aesthetic? Plus the soundtrack is good too. But mostly I watched it for the driving and the fact that it was filmed in LA. It's kind of cool to see places you've been on-screen, you know? The plot's okay I guess.” He withheld the information that he literally would watch a movie about paint drying if Oscar Isaac was in it.

“Hm. Okay. Acceptable I guess,” Lance said before taking a final bite of his burrito. Keith was astonished. He was only halfway through his. Lance pulled a frail napkin from his pocket and wiped his mouth.  
“Okay so your favorite color is obviously red. So what’s your favorite anime?” Lance asked. Keith’s brows furrowed at the assumption.

“Why do you think my favorite color is red? I don’t have a favorite color. And why would you assume I’d have a favorite anime?” Lance barked out a laugh at the defensiveness being directed at him. He stretched, pulling his arms above his head, then back. His head lolled from side to side in an attempt to crack his neck.

“Well let’s see. You’ve worn red every time I’ve seen you. And I assume you like anime because you look like you stepped out of one.” Lance was too amused for Keith’s liking and he scoffed in retaliation.

“I wasn’t wearing red when we bumped into each other at the store. I was wearing black. And blue!” Keith said, feeling satisfied. Lance shook his head.

“The ladybugs were very red, my friend.” The tone was so matter-of-fact and haughty and Keith wanted to grab his shirt and...something. Shake him or kiss him. Just wipe that attitude away to get back the Lance he had been talking to minutes earlier while they waited in line.

“Yeah but that’s just because I couldn’t find my bobby pins. Those just..they were all I had!” Keith fired back.

“Still red,” Lance smirked. Keith gripped on his burrito a little too hard and almost shot some kind of juice in his own face.

“And I don’t watch anime. Not anymore,” Keith said. He hadn’t since high school. When he stopped hanging out online on message boards and chatrooms and started focusing on motorcycles and racing. Lance seemed satisfied with the answer, seeing as how an irritating smirk crossed over his lips.

“Do you play Pokemon Go?” Hunk suddenly asked, looking away from Shay and Pidge, who were now making a return trip down the sidewalk.

“I did for a while. Kind of got bored though. Shiro does a little. He’s found like four Jigglypuffs in his work building. And a Ponyta,” Keith said before taking another bite of his food.

“Whoa. Shiro offered us a tour of his building. Now we really need to take him up on that. For science!” Hunk said, a faux determination in his voice. Keith chuckled in response.

Hunk was infinitely more sweet and likeable than Lance. Definitely. But he wasn’t single. And he definitely wasn’t the one making Keith’s heart thud dangerously fast when he brushed up against him to stand and wipe his dirty hands on his pants. Keith frowned in a mixture of disgust at what Lance was doing and at his own feelings.

Pidge and Shay returned from their little adventure down the block and Hunk asked them if they had any luck. Pidge showed Hunk their phone as proof of the Ghastly that they had found.

“Nice,” Hunk said, drawing out the length of the word before whistling. He was suddenly distracted by Shay shaking her shoulders, and swaying her hips to the music that was coming from the taco truck. Keith felt his heart melt at the look Hunk was giving her. Just completely enraptured by her movements and her energy.

The Keith from a few years ago might have made fun of Hunk for this; for the sappy look he was giving his girlfriend and for being so over the top, hopelessly in love with her, and for the ear to ear smile he was wearing. It was the type of thing Keith might have scoffed at silently. _Love? A waste of time!_ But now envy coiled through him. To be that into someone who was just as into you. What must that be like?

“Is that your girl Shakira, Shay?” Lance suddenly said, walking away from a large trash bin where he had just dropped the group’s garbage.

“With your girl Rihanna,” Shay answered before outstretching a hand to Lance and singing the words to the song without missing a beat.

_...I can’t remember to forget you. Oh oh oo oh oh..._

Keith sort of recognized the song. He’d heard it on the radio at work a few times, he was pretty sure. Shay was singing all the parts that Keith assumed were sung by Shakira, dancing and spinning and swaying with Lance in a dance that looked rehearsed. It looked like maybe salsa dancing, but Keith honestly couldn’t say. He just stared at how good they were, their bodies in tune with each other, and just both bursting with rhythm and a subtle sensuality. Then Lance picked up on the second verse, singing the lyrics along to Rihanna’s voice on the radio.

It wasn't exactly surprising that Lance’s voice was good. Keith hadn’t forgotten. But it still stirred something in him, nonetheless. He had only heard his singing voice the night they met and now he was getting an impromptu encore a week later. There was a difference to it, Keith noticed. Less practiced, more chaotic and playful with the notes. But still irrefutably Lance. There was something much sexier about it this time, and Keith wasn’t sure if it was the song or the fact that Lance was having so much fun singing it while he danced with his friend.

Keith was also suddenly very acutely aware of Lance’s body again. The movements to the dance were sensual, to say the least, and Lance seemed to know where Shay’s body would be at any given moment and how to bend into it or away from it. Any part of his body that could move was moving and Keith was _breathless_.

_...the way he makes me feel like, the way he makes me feel,_

_I never seemed to act so stupid…_

Keith was not imagining it, and this was not a drill. Lance’s lidded eyes had definitely drifted over to him during that last verse he was singing along to. Who was to say if it was intentional or not? Keith didn’t know Lance well enough to judge that kind of thing. But the fact that it could have been a complete accident definitely didn’t stop his face from burning up, or stop the hot, yet, numbing fuzzy sensation that traveled from his stomach to his limbs. Lance’s focus was back on Shay and Keith was barely holding himself together. Crushes _sucked_.

“They’re in a dance troupe together,” Hunk said to Keith over his shoulder. Keith practically jumped up, ready to wield the remainder of his burrito as a weapon at the unanticipated disruption to his staring. Keith shot a quick look over to Hunk.

“Uh, they are?” Keith choked out. His voice was one octave too high, _at least_.

“Yeah. They’ve been doing it for, like, a few years. You looked shocked that they were so good. And well, that’s why. Though they’re also just both blessed with natural rhythm according to Lance. Shay’s tried to get me to dance with her before, and her feet suffered for it,” Hunk said, chuckling a little at the end. Keith offered him a lopsided smile.

“Yeah, I’m not much of a dancer either,” Keith said, trying to collect himself so he didn’t seem like a total basket case in front of one of the more stable members of this group. Hunk smiled and turned back to watch Lance and Shay.

Keith couldn’t put two steps together, it was true, but it wasn’t going to stop him from being completely jealous of Shay at that moment. She had Lance’s full attention, was touching him, was in his arms, being spun around him, being caught by him, fitting into the space’s he created just for her as they moved around each other perfectly, without a care. And even with that wanting, Keith knew if Lance had suddenly lost his mind and decided to ask Keith to take Shay’s place, Keith would politely decline; he’d give the opportunity away out of fear; too wary of what others would think as he fumbled through the steps; too fearful of what Lance would think.

Keith became preoccupied with these negative thoughts, which he knew would soon lead down to a road of self-loathing. Self-loathing Keith became grumpy and distant Keith and that was not a side he wanted to show these new people. He glanced up from the ground and noticed Lance and Shay bumping into each other before stopping their dance as they cracked up in each other’s arms.

“Sorry, I thought we were doing a second spin,” Lance said through a breathy laugh. Shay wrapped an arm around his neck and kissed his temple aggressively.

“That’s why you need more practice!” She said with a giggle.

“Yes mother, as you say,” Lance joked before Shay pushed him away by the shoulder. Hunk was standing, waiting for Shay. Keith watched as she wrapped her arms around his neck, then quickly looked down at his feet when she had leaned in for a kiss.

“You still didn’t finish? Did you not like it? Was it the wrong sauce? Meat?” Lance was talking to him and Keith looked up, feeling an unhappy clench in his stomach.

“Whoa, are you okay?” Lance asked. He sounded concerned; worried even. Keith swallowed down the last bit of his pride for the evening.

“Yeah, just feeling tired suddenly. The food was good. I’m saving the rest for tomorrow,” Keith said quickly. He started wrapping his food in the foil as if that’s what he’d intended all along.

“Wise choice. Eat it cold though. Trust me,” Lance said, his voice teeming with a feigned cunning, as if he was giving away a state secret. “I’ll let Hunk know you’re ready to take off,” Lance said with a smile that was heavier in his eyes than on his lips. It made Keith feel a little worse and a little better all at once. Lance walked over to Hunk and Shay and talked with them for a few seconds before Hunk nodded.

“Alright, Pidge, we’re heading out! Pidge! Pidge are you listening?” Hunk said, waving a hand in front of them as they sat on the curb, engrossed in their phone.

“Yeah, I’m coming. Hunk, you gotta read this subreddit post, I swear you’re gonna pee yourself!” Pidge said through a grin and let out a laugh that sounded more like a series of hisses.

“As much as I _love_ peeing myself...” Hunk started to say as they made their way to the car and their voices trailed off into the night. Keith was getting ready to stand when Lance’s hand jut out at him. Keith didn’t need the help, but took the hand out of politeness because that was the only reason it was being offered to him.

“Thanks,” Keith said, feeling it come out a little awkward in tone. That seemed to be par for the course when talking to Lance. Or for the last week. Just a bubble of anxious-awkward energy ready to pop and break down any day now. Lance smiled and shrugged in response, which Keith was starting to learn to be a trait of his entire group of friends. As if thank you’s were not necessary between them. It’s a quality Keith liked; a quality with which he resonated.

Soon they were all packed back into the car and Keith was actually starting to feel as sleepy as he had lied about being and was grateful he’d soon be home in his bed. It was nearly four in the morning and Keith couldn’t remember a time he had stayed out so late. His being in bed by four wasn’t too unusual, but it was normally because he’d gotten stuck on an interesting article about space, or couldn’t stop binge-watching some crime show or documentary series.

At this hour, the streets were nearly empty. Well, _LA_ empty. Which meant lots of cars and people still wandering about the roads, but no traffic. They reached Keith’s apartment in fifteen minutes and Keith was forced to crawl out of the backseat with Pidge since they were by the door again.

“Did you have a good night?” Pidge asked quickly, holding the door to the car open. Keith nodded. Pidge snorted. “Real convincing. But hopefully you mean it. You’re alright, Keith! It was good meeting you!” Pidge said, without an ounce of insincerity in their voice. It was one of the few times Keith had witnessed Pidge in a state that wasn’t convoluted with sarcasm. Pidge crawled back into the car and then stuffed the lion out of the window.

“Don’t forget this monstrosity!” They said. Keith grabbed it and looked to the front seats and Hunk was leaning with an arm out the window, poking his head out. Keith walked over and offered a hand to him.

“It was good meeting you, Hunk,” Keith said. Hunk’s smile grew a bit and he shook Keith’s hand.

“Likewise, Keith. Don’t be a stranger!” Suddenly Shay was leaning over his lap, trying to poke her head out of the window too.

“For real, Keith. You should hang out with us again! I mean if you want,” she said with a bright smile. Keith felt his heart sink a little and wore a weary smile.

“Sure,” he said, not sure if it was a lie or not. The reason for him being out tonight at all was for Lance. To try and get close to Lance. But the man in question was still in his seat in the station wagon, not bothering to say goodbye or goodnight, or anything, really. He was leaving, possibly out of Lance’s life forever, and Lance seemed wholly disinterested. It only further cemented the assumption that Keith had been holding onto all along: Lance was not interested and Pidge had misinterpreted something very poorly. Shay handed him a small card.

“That’s got my number and email and website and basically all the info you need if you wanna contact me! Don’t be shy to use it, okay?” Shay’s smile was wide and bright and earnest. It forced an equally earnest smile from Keith. He nodded in response. With that, Shay’s head disappeared back into the car.

“Well it was good meeting all of you. Thanks for letting me and Shiro tag along,” Keith said. The volume in the station wagon busted out with enthusiastic words of affirmations. He turned from the car and stepped on to the curb.

“Not so fast, _Boyfriend_!” Lance’s voice stopped him dead in his tracks and Keith tried to collect himself as best he could before he made the quick turn back towards the car. Lance’s arms were folded over the roof of the car while he sat out of the far window facing the street.

“Keith,” Keith said. Being called boyfriend by Lance was just salt on the wound at this point. He didn’t want to hear it.

“Keith. There’s still the matter of our little bet!” Lance said, his chin propped up on his arms. Keith held in a groan. He’d forgotten about that entirely after all the events that had followed. Lance smirked and laughed. “Aha! I knew you forgot. Or were you being serious when you made the wager?” Lance eyed him up and down, as if he was sizing him up; seeing what kind of person he was.

“I keep my word,” Keith said. “Have Pidge give you my number. You can call me whenever you need it looked at, okay?” Lance gave him a curious look, but seemed satisfied with his answer. Meanwhile, Keith could feel his phone buzzing in his pocket.

“Well it was nice to finally put a name to your face,” Lance continued.

“Yeah. Well I mean, I already knew your name, but same. I mean...you know what I mean,” Keith stumbled over his words. Why not? Why not let that be his last impression for Lance for the evening of stumbling and mishaps? Lance chuckled.

“Yeah. It was good meeting you, Keith. See you around. Stay outta trouble. And take care of that lion. Give him a better name!” Lance nagged. Keith rolled his eyes.

“Alright, get in Lance. We gotta get going,” Hunk was heard from the driver’s seat. Keith smirked.

“I like Lion,” Keith deadpanned, hoping to rile Lance a bit. It worked and Lance grimaced over the roof of the car as it started to move.

“You’re hopeless, Keith!” Lance said with a final smile before Hunk scooted the car forward again and Lance slipped on the roof a bit. As they drove away, Keith could hear Lance complaining loudly as he got back into the car. Keith pulled out his phone and checked the messages.

 

> 3:56AM
> 
> **> Pidge:** Keith! Why did u tell him I have ur number? U fool! He’s definitely going to ask about that. Now I gotta think up a lie. Thanx a lot! >:V

 

What was one more blunder for a group of people he doubted would remember him after tonight.

 

> 4:00AM
> 
> >To Pidge: Sorry!

 

+++++++

 

> 4:04AM
> 
> >To Shiro: I’m home safe. I’m gonna assume u are too. And that ur probably asleep. So anyway, thanks for the attempt at being my wingman
> 
>  
> 
> >To Shiro: Don’t think it did me much good in the end, but I’m glad u were there tonight. I had fun. Don’t know if I’ll be seeing those guys again. Unless u end up marrying allura >:0}

 

Keith was in his room, sitting on his bed, still in his clothes from the night that smelled like a mixture of Mexican food and fair food. Two smells combating in an unpleasant way. He decided he needed a shower to wash off the smells or else Ruby was going to chew on him in his sleep.

Plus, he needed a mental cleansing as well. As excited as he was about the prospects of the evening when it had started, he felt he had left empty-handed and that there was really no resolve for his feelings. He’d end up letting the crush fizzle out and have to deal with the disappointment that he wasn’t able to click with a hot guy. Nothing new in the life of Keith Kogane.

When he got out of the shower and into some clean pajamas he noticed his text light blinking on his phone. Maybe Shiro had still been awake after all? Instead he was met with several text notifications from Pidge. Six, then a seventh as he was opening the rest of the texts.

 

> 4:32AM
> 
> **> Pidge:** Ok I managed to convince lance we exchanged #s when we were at the fair. In case we got separated. He seemed suspicious but dropped it anywy
> 
>  
> 
> **> Pidge:** Anyway, we were all serious about hanging with u again. We had fun w/ u and ur dreamboat Disney Prince mother flipper of a cousin.

 

> 4:33AM
> 
> **> Pidge:** So text Shay or me any time u wanna hang. I have classes on MWTh. But can hang most nights.
> 
>  
> 
> **> Pidge:** I dont know how its gonna be w Lance. I cant give u anymore insider info without breaking several friendship treaties and bylaws, so I cant say much on that front. But eve

 

> 4:34AM
> 
> **> Pidge:** N if things don’t work out with that, we all think ur a cool dude. Also sorry if I came on a little strong tonight. I was super hyped and also had a few red bulls in me bc i was nervous about meeting u and
> 
>  
> 
> **> Pidge:** Maybe u might have kiled me for lying to u on the interwebs. I’m usually much more chill than that. I swear.

 

> 4:35AM
> 
> >To Pidge: I find that hard to believe. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

> 4:36AM
> 
> **> Pidge:** Ok so maybe not much more chill, but I’m not nearly as overtly sarcastic. Its got more of a subtle quality to it. Its like an art rly.

 

> 4:37AM
> 
> >To Pidge: Mhm. Listen, thanks for all u tried to do tonight. I still wouldn’t stake ur career on becoming a matchmaker but it was kind of a nice thing u did for me. And for Lance. Or a nice thing u tried to do.
> 
>  
> 
> >To Pidge: Anyway, I’m gonna go to bed. I had a good night. Really.

 

> 4:38AM
> 
> **> Pidge:** Alright. Sleep well young Keith.

 

Keith put the phone on his nightstand and got up to turn off his lights. When he fell back into bed, Ruby joined him and he did not fail to notice the string of fake mane hanging from her mouth. He just hoped the lion would make it till morning when he could find a better place to put it. He laid in his bed, his lids heavy, but his mind completely unable to stop replaying the night over and over. The things he could have said, the ways he could have behaved. If he was maybe another Keith entirely. One that wouldn’t be afraid to tell Lance how he felt. He drifted off feeling sour, hoping his dreams would be kind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shay and Lance dancing like a toned down version of [this](https://youtu.be/qLHP8hl7GfM) FYI 
> 
> The song they're dancing to is [THIS!!!](https://youtu.be/o3mP3mJDL2k) I can't have a Lance fic and not include Rihanna somehow. Probably.


	6. That Feeling When: You Need to be Bold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for all the locale name dropping in this chapter (and all the others I guess idk). It's actually just mostly for me to keep track of things tbh.

 

**Wednesday, October 20th**

_This sucks._ ** _This sucks!!!!_** _I can’t believe I’m feeling lonely._ ** _Lonely_** _. Me! That’s what they do. They make you lonely when you wouldn’t normally be. Before, it was all “no one there to sleep with you at night? No big deal.” Now it’s like “hey, look at this big empty bed, sure sucks that you’ll **die** alone!” _

_Ugh, how nice would it be to wake up next to him, though? Or just watch a movie together on the couch, or ride on my motorcycle with him holding on to me. Man, I wonder what his hugs feel like... Damn it! I hate this, this is stupid._

_And why do I miss him, anyway? I don’t even know him? Honestly. Why did I let Pidge make me think he liked me too? Why did I get my hopes up like that? It’s been four days, why hasn’t he texted me? Someone who liked me would have texted me. Right? Pidge was so wrong. God, I suck. I wonder what he’s doing right now..._

Keith was supposed to be meditating. Instead, he was running through a list in his head of why crushes sucked and was feeling down on himself in equal measure. He hadn’t felt so dejected about romance in such a long time, he couldn't even remember if he had ever. He couldn’t understand it. He was beating himself up, feeling miserable over some intense attraction to some practical stranger. An acquaintance at best. He involuntarily let out a sigh that was bordering on a groan. Again.

“Keith! Clear your mind!” The class instructor grumbled loudly. Keith shot open an eye when he heard the kids in the class giggling.

“Sorry, Sensei,” Keith mumbled. He tried to meditate in earnest this time. He usually loved the meditation segments of class. They were good for destressing and soothing his problems. Only now, it had been four days since the fair; since his disaster of a set up with Lance, and no one had contacted him. He had started several times to text Pidge, but each time he deleted the message, not sure what to say aside from “hey”. He was not feeling very centered. Keith tried to control his breathing and finish the rest of his allotted time in peace.

When the class was over, Keith was hunched over his duffel, stuffing in his towel and grabbing his helmet. He was facing the back wall of the studio, his back to the children from class still present and huddled by the door as they put their shoes back on and gathered their things.

“Everything is temporary, Keith,” a soothing voice spoke from behind. Keith rolled his eyes before turning around, despite how eerily spot on the advice was. Ray, the Mexican-Japanese instructor in his forties with the body (and chest hair) of a lumberjack, had a funny way of spouting off random wise-sounding advice that sounded like it just might help your troubles. That’s what you get from a philosophy major turned aikido instructor. He was also one of the few people on this green Earth that Keith actually liked.

“So wise, _mystical sensei_ ,” Keith said sarcastically. Ray laughed.

“Seriously though, Kid. You were majorly distracted today. You doin’ alright?” Keith smiled at the concern he could hear permeating the gruff voice he was used to.

“Yeah, Ray. Just a rough couple of weeks. But things should be back to normal soon,” Keith said, hoping it was true. Ray was only able to offer a light smile in response before Keith was bombarded by several of the children from class.

“Keith! Keith! Could you _really_ throw Sensei Ray across the room?” One child asked, his excited smile taking up the majority of his face.

“Can you teach us your knife skills?” Another kid asked, waving an invisible knife through the air haphazardly. Keith forced his face into an overly dramatic frown.

“Bina, you weren’t supposed to be learning from me. I was the attacker. So no, I won’t show you my knife skills. And Michael, Sensei was talking about the throwing because he was saying how to use your opponent’s weight to your advantage. It wasn’t literal!” Bina dug her heel into the ground and scrunched her nose up in something resembling disgust.

“Aw man!” She said. Keith couldn’t stifle his smile any longer as his lips practically twitched upwards. The enthusiastic, inquisitive kids were his favorites. Bina slumped away, but Michael stayed, darting his eyes around as if he were checking out the area.

“Okay, but you _could_ really throw him though. Right?” He asked in a hushed tone. Keith knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder, making shifty eyes to mimic the child’s, as if they were being watched at that very moment.

“Oh, definitely,” Keith said quietly with a mischievous grin. Michael’s eyes lit up and his huge smile reappeared for an encore.

“I knew it!” He said, slamming one fist into his palm. He turned and ran towards his group of friends who were all going out onto the balcony to wait for their parents. Keith pulled on his shoes and began walking towards the door.

“Keith, wait up!” Ray called out after him. Keith stopped and waited for Ray to catch up to him at the door. “Can you help out with Ken’s class on Saturday? I was supposed to but I’ve got a family thing I could probably get out of, but would never hear the end of it.”

Keith rolled his eyes but smiled and nodded.

“Sure. Morning or afternoon lesson?” He asked.

“Morning.”

“Alright, tell Ken I’ll be there,” Keith said. With a final nod he exited the studio and walked down the balcony, squeezing through children and the parents that were trying to wrangle them away from their friends. He pulled out his phone and saw that he had a few notifications from Shiro.

 

 

 

 

 

> 3:34PM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Keith!!! We got the backing we needed! This is amazing! Oh man. When I get back on Saturday we should go out for a nice dinner. Or Sunday. Obviously my treat. Damn! I’m so excited!!! I’ll call you tonight!

 

Keith’s automatic reaction was a wan smile, but it quickly fell into a deep frown. He was happy for Shiro because he knew how important this was to him. Shiro had been so nervous the day before; worried he would somehow screw up his presentation or something equally absurd. Shiro had never screwed up anything a day in his life, as Keith recalled. Well, recent horrendous failure of a joke aside. Keith knew he would get what he needed out of his business trip because Shiro achieved anything he set his mind to. It was just how things were.

But still something nasty curled up in Keith. Selfish feelings, petty feelings. With this new leg of his career, the already increasingly absent Shiro would be traveling more often. He might even have to temporarily relocate. The very idea made Keith’s heart sink. Perhaps it was unfair, but he was very dependent on the company and advice and support of his cousin.

His paranoia even suggested that it partially might have been the reason why Shiro was looking forward to this opportunity. To get away from the burden that was his wash out little cousin/brother/person in his life who placed all his emotional well-being on him. The idea terrified Keith, even if he thought it would be completely fair.

The other reason was much more petty. Shiro’s success didn’t exactly bother Keith. It was just a given. One of life’s defaults at this point in their lives. Keith didn’t necessarily begrudge him for it because he knew Shiro had suffered and come through the other side stronger and better for it. Keith wasn’t sure he would have been able to do the same in his position. Regardless, every new obstacle Shiro passed through effortlessly, every new achievement or life success or goal met was just a reminder to Keith about how little he had accomplished and how directionless his existence was. He sighed at the thoughts running through his mind and started tapping away at his phone.

 

 

 

 

 

> 3:52PM
> 
> >To Shiro: That’s great Shiro u totally deserve it! Saturday or Sunday are both fine, so lets just see how u feel when u get home from ur flight

 

Keith zipped his phone back into his duffel after receiving an affirmative response from Shiro and put his helmet on as he walked to his motorcycle to go home.

 

+++++++

 

He woke with a sharp inhale, sprawled across his couch, his legs tangled in the striped throw that was usually tucked over the backrest. Ruby was purring softly on his neck and he sighed, eyes glancing towards the television. The main menu of a DVD he’d borrowed was playing soft eerie tones. It was abruptly accompanied by the sound of his phone vibrating against the hard surface of his desk. He picked his cat up and placed her on the throw, then stood and stretched, pressing into the small of his back with one hand and scratching his neck with the other. The tension he was attempting to work out of his shoulders returned intensely when he realized the notifications were texts from Pidge.

 

 

 

 

 

> 5:56PM
> 
> **> Pidge:** So u know that whole waiting to call when u get someones number is total hetero propaganda bullshit right? And even if it wasn’t I’m just not into u that way, so there’s no reason u should have waited so long to tex
> 
>  
> 
> **> Pidge:**t unless u were lying about having a good time with us. In which case, this can be the last message I ever send. I won’t bug you again. I have my pride Keith!!!!!

 

Keith couldn’t help but smirk at the messages. Pidge had a roundabout, humorous way of saying whatever was on their mind at any given time. Seeing it again after silence for four days made him realize he kind of missed it.

 

 

 

 

 

> 5:58PM
> 
> >To Pidge: Sorry. I wanted to text. I’m just really bad with...this whole thing.

 

 

 

 

 

> 5:58PM
> 
> **> Pidge:** what whole thing? Texting?

 

 

 

 

 

> 5:59PM
> 
> >To Pidge: No. like...talking to new people? I don’t know what to say. I don’t text ppl unless I have a reason to or I know them well.

 

 

 

 

 

> 5:59PM
> 
> **> Pidge:** Ur obvs reason would be that u missed me terribly. But if thats not good enough, do u wanna hang with Hunk and Shay and me tonight? Allura might show up later, but we’re just grabbing a bite at a pho joint.

 

Keith stared at his phone. Pidge specifically didn’t mention Lance. Did that mean he wouldn’t be there? Keith tried to come up with a way to ask without seeming too obvious, but his brain failed him. He supposed Pidge would have mentioned Lance by name if he was going to be there. He sighed, deliberating. His only plans for the night were bad movies and probably cleaning his entire apartment around one in the morning. That could probably wait.

 

 

 

 

 

> 6:02PM
> 
> >To Pidge: Sounds good. Where should I meet u guys?

 

Disappointment and relief wrapped around his chest, fighting over control of his mood. No Lance meant Keith could relax around the others and not worry about what Lance was thinking about him. He’d get to be himself a bit more and perhaps get to know these new friends better. It bothered him how much he wanted Lance to like him. Lance was a showy jerk. He didn’t need his approval. Then why was he already so bummed that he wasn’t going to be there too? _Because he’s also thoughtful and generous and...no. Stop. No need to go down that road again._

It wasn’t as though he didn’t want the rest of them to like him. He was actually surprised by how much he respected all of them and wanted their respect in return. It was a very rare thing for him to care. His desire for Lance to like him was just intensified by, well, a lot. He tried to shut down the disappointed feelings at not being able to see Lance and instead focus on being excited to see the other people that he genuinely enjoyed being around.

 

 

 

 

 

> 6:04PM
> 
> **> Pidge:** We’re meeting in Silverlake. I’ll text u the address. Just a sec.

 

+++++++

 

Silverlake. Keith hated Silverlake. Well, he hated the fake, entitled people in this part of the city, and by extension hated the area and always tried to avoid it at all costs. Keith truly lacked the energy to tolerate those kinds of people, even on a good day. He supposed he must really like these people if he was willing to travel here for them. He was on Sunset, sitting on a bench in front of the restaurant Pidge had texted him. He had arrived early because Keith always arrived early.

The restaurant looked kind of dead from the window and since he wanted to avoid chatting with the staff, he decided to wait outside until the others arrived. He was checking his Instagram feed when Pidge jumped up behind him and slammed their hands down on his shoulders in an attempt to scare him. He jumped slightly, but their laughter gave them away instantly. He turned to see Pidge in a loose, cropped faded maroon sweater and some gray cargo pants.

“You have Instagram?” Pidge asked as they intrusively look over his shoulder. Keith pulled his phone down and frowned.

“Not really. I don’t have any pictures. I just use it to look at...uh...Shiro’s photos once in awhile,” Keith answered. Pidge raised their eyebrow.

“Sure buddy. But I know famous cats when I see them!” Pidge grinned. Keith flushed as Hunk and Shay walked up to the two of them. Keith was feeling underdressed when he saw them. Hunk had a thin tie on over a yellow button-up shirt and a vest and nice slacks, and Shay was wearing some kind of black bodysuit with a sleeveless camel trench coat and nice jewelry.

“Hey, Keith! Glad you could make it buddy!” Hunk said happily, clapping him on the back. Shay gave him a light punch in his shoulder.

“ _Burro_! You never texted. I thought you didn’t like us or something!” She said with a wink and a sweet smile that Keith remembered fondly. He smiled weakly in response.

“Yeah. Sorry about that,” Keith started. Pidge took the opportunity to distract the group and lead them into the restaurant.

“So Shiro’s in Maryland right now?” Pidge asked as they nodded at the hostess. As Hunk and Shay struck up a conversation with the hostess, Keith quirked his head in response.

“How do you know about that?” Keith asked, taken aback by the amount of personal information Pidge had acquired. He suddenly felt guarded.

“Allura told me. Or more like, she complained to me I guess,” Pidge said with a displeased expression. Keith’s heart sank a little. He knew Shiro and Allura had hit it off the other night, and exchanging numbers was no big surprise either. But, Shiro hadn’t really mentioned her to him at all since that night and Keith suddenly felt hurt, like information was being purposefully withheld from him. He was pulled out of his gloom when he heard the hostess speak.

“So I’m guessing you guys want downstairs? In Lance’s section?” Keith’s face and stomach burned at the mention of Lance’s name. What did she mean Lance’s section? Lance worked here? They were going to be seeing Lance? Keith wanted to shake Pidge for not mentioning that in their texts.

He hadn’t brushed his hair, he was wearing an old t-shirt and some black jeans with holes in them and sneakers; none of which shouted “SEXY!” Now he _really_ felt underdressed. Crap, he was also wearing an old maroon bomber jacket he found at Goodwill. Maroon was close enough to red that Lance would definitely make a big deal out of it--although come to think of it, he was now beginning to see Lance’s point.

“Yes, please. Is there a wait?” Shay answered.

“Nah, go ahead and go down. There are a few tables still open,” the hostess said, leaning on the podium behind which she stood. The group descended down a staircase that was hidden in the wall that Keith would have never known existed if he hadn’t stepped into the restaurant. As they walked down, he could hear a bustle of people and the familiar clank of dishware over the music system.

“Why didn’t you mention Lance worked here?” Keith whispered angrily to Pidge as they walked behind the others down the steps. Pidge almost looked sympathetic.

“I didn’t think it mattered? I mean he’s not going to be hanging with us. He’ll be working. Did you change your mind about him or something? Is there going to be an issue?” Pidge asked their questions rapid-fire. Keith’s shoulders slumped.

“No. I guess not. I just…” Keith didn’t know how to finish that sentence without sounding completely pathetic. _Pidge, I’m going to look like crap in front of Lance! AGAIN! Of course it’s a problem!_ “It’s fine,” he said instead. Pidge half-smiled at him as they walked into the downstairs dining area.

The downstairs dining area was in such complete contrast to the upstairs seating it might as well have been a separate restaurant all on its own. Whereas the top floor had more of a rustic, classic feel to it, the basement floor was screaming minimalist modernism. Beams came down from the floor above to create sections between booths, the only real dividing aspects of the long singular room. It wasn’t really Keith’s thing, but there were a few notable aspects of the room, namely a bar at one end and a huge terrarium at the other that took up the width of the room. Keith could see fairy lights glowing hazily behind the collection of unique flora.

Keith looked around the room, pretending to take in the glass wine cellars and dimly lit chandeliers and the workmanship of the wooden benches; in honesty, he was just scanning. He made out the uniform of the employees after a moment: dark denim button up with black bottoms and a black apron across the waist. A girl in a very tight black skirt and black tights whipped by them with an empty tray on her shoulder and was running back up the stairs. Keith nearly jumped to move out of her way. When his attention was drawn back into the room, his eyes immediately landed on Lance.

He was by the far end near a table by the terrarium, smiling and chatting with one of the patrons. Even from the distance, Keith was having a hard time keeping his pulse in check. Seeing Lance still sent him reeling into uncertainty and filled him with butterflies. It didn’t help that his uniform suited him so well.

Lance was probably the type of jerky guy who just happened to look good in everything, Keith had accepted that as soon as he saw him in those silly 90s pants a week earlier; but what Keith could not forgive was Lance in a button up shirt, Lance in a thin black tie, Lance in slightly tight black pants that were taut against his body in just the right places, topped off with a small black apron around his waist to pull the look together. Lance was working, and yet he still managed to be the hottest guy in a room full of people who were trying to look their best. People on dates, people who were legitimately trying to impress someone, and there Lance was, being Lance; the moon that distracted from the stars.

And then there was Keith, in his ratty clothes, hair mussed as always because what was he supposed to do with it anyway?--And wow, Lance’s hair looked so soft in the dim yellow lights of the basement. Keith sighed. Truly, life was just not fair he thought for the hundredth time that week.

“Hey guys!” A voice broke through Keith’s train of thought and his attention was fixed towards the bar where a handsome man was already loudly chatting with Hunk and Shay as they walked over towards him. The man was extremely congenial and Keith felt a smile on his lips as he listened to him laugh and joke around with the others. His eyes flitted over to Keith and his words seemed to die on his lips. His gaze was intense and focused and Keith could feel himself blush under the severity of it.

“Well, hello!” The bartender said with a wide, welcoming smile. Keith raised an eyebrow and half smiled back, feeling almost flustered.

“Uh...” Keith started--but was cut off quickly.

“Hey,” Lance’s voice was easily recognizable though his tone was hard to discern. His hand clapped down on Keith’s shoulder from behind and a nervous feeling zipped up from Keith’s stomach to his chest as he realized how familiar the hands felt on his body. His thoughts traveled back to the hayride; Lance holding onto him tightly. He forced the thoughts down and turned around to face him.

“Hey, Lance!” Hunk said happily.

“Uh, hi,” Keith said, his attempt at being nonchalant resulted in him sounding dazed instead.

“I can seat you guys. Come on,” Lance told them, his arm outstretched down one of the pathways that led to the booths. His eyes were on the bartender, and his pleasant demeanor from earlier, with the patron, had shifted entirely.

As the group walked down the directed path, Lance shuffled ahead quickly and gestured to a free table that was by the terrarium. Keith was doing his best to avoid looking at Lance because he knew it would only lead to him staring at Lance and inevitably getting caught staring at Lance and he just wanted to have a nice dinner with some nice people and not have to worry about that.

“So I see you guys managed to track down the _elusive Keith_ ,” Lance said with only slight amusement in his voice. There was another tone underlying it and Keith couldn’t quite place it. At the mention of his own name, he reflexively looked up at Lance, catching him in a frown that stretched to his eyes. He had a sinking feeling Lance did not want him there. His expression perked up as he looked at the others around the table.

“Yeah well, I just had to promise him my first born child and a goat, and then he was happy to oblige to join us,” Pidge teased, grinning at Keith. Keith frowned at them.

“You make me sound like Satan or something,” Keith said, unamused. Pidge snorted and Keith could see Hunk and Shay trying to stifle their own smirking.

“Well, the devil hath power to assume pleasing shapes and all that,” Lance interjected in a distracted tone. Keith’s eyes widened slightly and he swallowed hard as he looked up at Lance, whose eyes were on another table. Devil comment aside, Keith was pretty sure Lance just called him attractive. Lance with the soft hair and gorgeous eyes and beautiful smile just implied he was attractive. Right? Lance seemed entirely preoccupied with something else that was going on in the restaurant and Keith wondered if he’d even realized or meant what he just said. He didn’t want to read into anything, but…

“Why am I the devil?” Keith mumbled, still irritated by the implication regardless of the compliment that followed.

“Maybe not Satan. Maybe just a small angry deity. The God of Social Awkwardness!” Pidge said in an amused tone as they scrolled through their phone for a moment. Keith was giving them the glare of a lifetime.

“I’ll be right back,” Lance said without looking down at the table. He walked away with a quickened fluidity in his step that drew Keith’s eyes to him again. The table was momentarily quiet while Pidge was on their phone and Shay and Hunk were glancing at a menu together. Keith placed his hands on the table and lightly strummed his fingers, pressing his mouth to the side, trying to think of something relevant to say.

“So what’s--” Keith started, but Lance returned to the table and his lips seemed to zip shut on their own. He had brought a bottle of water and four glasses.

“So do you guy want to order for yourselves or do you want me to pick for you?” Lance asked as he spread the glasses in front of his friends and began filling them.

“You know what’s good, so I’ll go ahead with your judgment. I _would_ like some wine, though,” Shay said, pursing her lips together in a cute smile. Lance pulled a face that Keith didn’t understand.

“Well, you’ll have to pay for that yourself. Last time you guys came I got in trouble for giving too much alcohol away,” Lance said, pouring water into Keith’s glass.

“If I recall, you were the one that offered it. We didn’t ask for free drinks,” Hunk said in an amused and calm tone.

“Details, details. So,” Keith could feel eyes Lance focus in on him “what about you, Keith?”

“Huh? Me?” Keith asked. Lance looked a mixture of confused and amused.

“Um yeah. The only Keith I know. Do you want a menu or do you want to trust my culinary wisdom?” Lance asked.

“I trust you,” Keith answered a little too honestly. Lance looked taken aback by his words which clued Keith in on how that must have sounded. “I mean your food expertise hasn’t failed me so far,” Keith added, hoping it took the intensity of his initial statement down a notch. When Lance’s wide eyes fell to their usual gaze, he assumed it had worked.

“Okay. No allergies?” He asked. Keith shook his head. “Cool cool. I’ll be back in a bit. Pidge,” Lance’s tone suddenly took a stern tone. “Do _not_ do anything to get me fired!” Pidge smirked and rolled their eyes.

“Dude, you say that _every time_! And I only came close the once!” Pidge said, wiggling their eyebrows. Lance chuckled and rolled his eyes as he sauntered away.

The others quickly settled into a conversation about their day. The reason Shay and Hunk were looking more dapper than usual was because they had just come from a photoshoot for Shay’s blog--apparently their two year anniversary was coming up and Hunk had graciously agreed to do some outfit post with her, even though he hated being in front of the camera like that--as Shay had put it before peppering Hunk’s cheek with loud kisses.

Pidge groaned and then quickly derailed the conversation with talk about their gender studies class and how much they hated their professor and lamented not dropping the class when they had the chance. Keith was mostly quiet, only occasionally asking questions for clarification. He wasn’t completely out of the loop, he had the internet after all, but discussing these things with--who he assumed were--like-minded individuals was entirely different. As Keith’s intrigue piqued, his feelings of skittishness melted away. There was a new feeling surrounding him like he had found something he never even knew he was looking for with these people.

The conversation was interspersed with Lance occasionally dropping by the table for a quick word, or to drop something off for their meal. He would hang back for a few minutes, smiling loftily as Pidge went on another tirade about gender norms, then leave and come back for an encore a few minutes later. The latest time he stopped by, he’d dropped off a plate of egg rolls.

“Well, I mean it’s just such utter bullshit!” Pidge was saying between the crunches of their egg roll. Keith was mourning the completion of his own egg roll. He had eaten it ravenously, having missed lunch, and it just wasn’t enough. He made eye contact with Hunk who looked down at his own empty plate and nodded knowingly. Keith chuckled.

“Pidge, literally no one was disagreeing with you,” Shay said with a laugh before she sipped on her wine.

“Well, newbie here hasn’t heard my rant before. Man, I can’t wait till we write the next essay and I can totally just reem her with facts and knowledge and she will cry and quit her job,” Pidge said with an amused viciousness before sticking the remainder of the egg roll into their mouth. The smile on Keith’s lips widened. He was having a good time. Suddenly a beer was set down in front of him. He looked up to see Lance standing over the table again. He put another glass of beer down in front of Hunk, and a bottle of coke down in front of Pidge.

“This is discrimination! Ageist!” Pidge yelled with a scowl. Lance rolled his eyes, smiling.

“I thought you said no free booze,” Hunk said, taking a swig of his beer regardless.

“Who says it’s free?” Lance asked, his smile shifting into cunning territory. He quickly looked at Keith who was staring at the beer with some kind of hesitation.

“I’m just kidding. Yours is free, don’t worry,” Lance said to him with a wink. Keith flushed instantly.

“I wasn’t worried. I was just…” Keith said, tongue-tied again. His eyes shifted from the beer to Lance, then back to the beer. Lance’s lips curled into the slightest smile and he exhaled through his nose.

“Do you not like beer?” Lance asked.

“It’s fine. Um, thanks?” Keith said quickly, to show he wasn’t ungrateful. Lance waved the thanks away in his usual manner.

“Food should be out in a minute. Don’t have too much fun without me,” Lance said, winking at Keith again and then walking away. Keith felt the wink shoot him in the gut. He momentarily lost feeling in his face as he tried to reconcile with the strong desire to chase after Lance and kiss him in retribution for making him feel like this.

“Too late!” Pidge yelled after him before taking a sip of their Coke.

The conversation continued for a moment longer before Lance and another server came to their table with loads of food that Keith thought had to be for more than just their table. He quickly learned that it wasn’t as the table became covered in dish after dish of steaming, delicious smelling foods. Some soup that Keith had never seen was placed in front of him, and he was hesitant, not knowing what it was, but the smell was too tempting and he quickly dug in as the others did the same with their meals. Their trust in Lance was well placed, the food was perfect.

The conversation halted while everyone stuffed food into their faces as if they hadn’t eaten in years. Keith’s eyes were, once again, helplessly drawn to Lance. Lance was a performer at heart, that much had become abundantly obvious to Keith. The night he met him he was up on a stage, but after that Keith had seen him perform several other times; from the showmanship he dramatically displayed while playing carnival games, to the dancing and singing with Shay in a dark parking lot in the middle of the night, to dozens of other times that Keith had watched Lance try and make himself the center of attention amongst his friends.

Keith didn’t know whether it was an impulse that drove Lance to be that way, or if it was as natural to him as breathing. He envied it. Lance enjoyed attention, he thrived in it. It was so fundamentally different from how Keith was. Perhaps that was why he was so drawn to Lance; he wanted to bask in his glow for just a little while.

Even then, as Lance flitted around the dining floor like a humming bird, elegant, fluid, spinning to avoid collision with a coworker, or placing food on a table with a bit of flourish and finesse, it was all just so very naturally Lance. Lance was smiling and joking with some other patrons and Keith finally had to look back down at his food. How was someone like _that_ supposed to be interested in someone like him? Keith wouldn’t even know what to do with his attention if Lance deigned to bestow it upon him.

 

+++++++

 

“We’re all going to Hunk’s after this if you want,” Pidge said, slurping up the last bit of noodle from their bowl.  The group had mostly finished their food, with a few dishes still half full, no one brave enough to attempt to clear them. Keith had just finished a helping of some of the best fried rice he had ever had and was ready to burst. His eyes darted from Pidge to Hunk.

“Yeah man. Nothing big. Just some Mario Kart. Maybe followed by a night stroll. There’s a 24-hour cafe by our apartment building,” Hunk said, his warm smile permeating whatever mood Keith let crawl into him.

“That sounds good. I just need your address. Or I can follow you on my bike,” Keith said, wiping his mouth with a napkin and leaning back in his seat, paralyzed from being over-stuffed.

“Oh! You drove your motorcycle here?” Pidge asked, eyes wide and glinting under the chandelier. Keith looked at them with suspicion.

“Um, yes?” He said, drawing out the word in hesitation. Pidge’s lips spread into the widest grin he’d ever seen.

“Can I get a ride on it?” Pidge leaned forward, hands clasped to the edge of the table in front of them, practically vibrating. Keith suddenly laughed, the request far more harmless than he was expecting.

“I mean, that’s fine. But you’ll need a helmet and maybe a jacket,” Keith answered. Pidge’s expression dropped for only a second before their eyes lit up again. They started looking around the dining room until they saw Lance. Pidge turned around in the booth and knelt against the backrest, waving wildly. Keith watched Pidge flail about while Lance ignored them for a guest he was serving. Finally, his eyes drifted upwards and he saw Pidge practically standing on the seat, wriggling to get his attention. Keith sucked in his lips to hold back the bark of a laugh that wanted to escape him. Lance’s glare was legendary. It softened as he looked back down at the guests to say one more thing, then he quickly rushed away from their table to head back to his friends.

“Pidge, what did I _tell_ you! The owner is here tonight! If he sees you, _I’ll_ get fired or _you’ll_ get banned!” Lance was struggling to remain composed, his voice was shrill. Even as Keith listened to Lance attempt to rebuke Pidge’s behavior, it was obvious to him there was no bite behind his words. What he said was out of concern.

“Yeah yeah. Sorry. Listen, we’ll take the check, we’re heading to your place soon. But can I borrow your helmet?” Lance looked utterly confused. Keith mimicked the expression unintentionally. He hadn’t realized Lance and Hunk lived together; that he was going to _Lance’s_ apartment.

“What? Why? Is this for science? Because then my answer is--” Lance started. He seemed suddenly on edge upon hearing the new information. Pidge was giggling and shaking their head.

“No no. Keith’s gonna give me a ride on his motorcycle, but he’s apparently into _safety_ , so I need a helmet!” Pidge explained. Keith’s eyes switched focus from Pidge to Lance and he was taken aback by Lance’s darkened expression. His brows were furrowed and his smile had dropped completely as he scrunched his nose in something akin to distaste.

“Oh,” he responded quietly, barely heard over the bustle of the restaurant. Keith studied his expression, but Lance wasn’t meeting his gaze, his focus was on the table.

“What’s the matter?” Pidge grinned. “Are you jealous?” They asked, dragging out the last word in the longest and most obnoxious way they could manage. Lance looked at Pidge as if the answer was obvious and his head dipped a little as he shrugged at them.

“Well, _yeah_ ,” Lance said, his face twisting a little more. Keith felt his heart thud. After a second Lance’s expression leveled out and he looked merely irritated. “I kind of need it to get home though, _genius_ ,” he added. Pidge’s obnoxious grin dropped for the first time in a few minutes as they thought. Their eyes darted around at the table, at their friends' faces, then landed on Keith.

“You don’t get off till midnight. Keith can bring it back!” Pidge offered, eyes wide with hope. Keith’s own eyes widened, unsure of what Pidge was up to.  
“Pidge!” Keith heard Shay say in what he was coming to learn was her “angry mom” tone. Keith imagined it was developed after years of attempting to keep Lance in line. Obviously, it was often taken out for Pidge as well. “You can’t just offer up people to do your bidding!” Shay continued. Pidge’s nose scrunched as they looked to Shay with a shrug, oblivious to committing any social faux pas.

“Yeah. He’d have to drive all the way back from Highland Park,” Lance was saying, in a tone similar to Shay’s, but much less severe.

“That works out then. He’d have to come back this way to get back to his place!” Pidge argued.

“Pidge!” Lance said through grit teeth.

“Why am I the bad guy? I just solved the equation here, folks!” Pidge said defensively.

“It’s fine,” Keith suddenly said, breaking the tension forming on his behalf. All eyes were suddenly on him. “It’s fine. I’ll do it. I don’t mind,” he said a little louder.

“You don’t have to give in,” Shay said.

“Yeah, if she gets her way now, she’ll walk all over you!” Lance added in a flustered tone.

“I mean, I don’t have to,” Keith said with a shrug. “But I don’t mind. Pidge is right. It’s on my way home, sorta. It’s not a big deal,” Keith said. Keith was shocked he was able to keep his tone so casual when his heart was beating so quickly. Taking Lance his helmet back meant they’d be alone. Even if it was just for a minute. They were sort of alone at the fair, but this felt different somehow. His eyes wandered between Pidge and Lance as a decision was being made. Finally, Lance shrugged.

“Okay, if it’s really alright with you,” Lance said, his tone calming. “I’ll grab the check. And the helmet from the back room,”  Lance added, eyes on Pidge. Pidge fist pumped with both arms and slammed their hands down on the table.

“Yes!” Pidge snickered while Lance walked away.

“I didn’t even know you were interested in motorcycles that much,” Keith said once Pidge calmed down a bit. Pidge’s expression fell and they raised their eyebrows.

“Well, I’m not. But riding one is definitely on my bucket list!”

Keith smiled lightly. Riding his bike was as natural to him as walking by now. He supposed he was slightly desensitized to the initial thrill that filled him when he sat on his motorcycle and the engine rumbled to life beneath him. He was suddenly looking forward to hearing Pidge’s impression of it all. Lance returned with check and helmet in hand and held it out for Pidge.

“Don’t damage it, please,” Lance said in a petulant tone that caused Pidge to snort out a laugh.

“Well unless Keith’s really bad at driving--” Pidge began.

“I’m not,” Keith said in a completely serious tone. Pidge snorted again.

“Well, there you have it. No harm shall befall this helmet while it is in my possession,” Pidge said, holding a hand to their heart. Lance rolled his eyes. Keith grabbed the check this time and held up his hand as Shay and Hunk protested loudly.

“Call it an anniversary gift or something,” Keith said with a light smile towards Shay and Hunk as he quickly pulled out his card and pressed it into the check tray before handing it back to Lance. His eyes darted towards Pidge and he smirked. “You can owe me, though.” An indignant noise came out of Pidge while Lance laughed as he walked away. Keith felt a warm sensation in his gut. He really did enjoy making Lance laugh.

 

+++++++

 

The ride had started off a bit bumpy. Pidge was more nervous than they had initially let on, and Keith had to adjust himself and them, _and_ the way he rode to accommodate them better. By the time they were winding up one of the side streets towards the apartment, Pidge’s death grip on Keith had loosened and they were shrieking with laughter instead of just shrieking.

When they arrived at the apartment building, Pidge pulled off the helmet to reveal their usual fluff of hair had matted down into a grubby cotton ball look that was so unflattering Keith laughed on sight. Pidge’s face screwed into a scowl as they quickly ran their fingers this way and that, and with a few flicks of their wrists, the hair was restored to its usual state. Keith’s expression dropped immediately.

“That’s so unfair,” Keith said monotonously, tugging at a strand of his own hair, “how do you _do_ that?” Pidge settled into a smug grin.

“It’s genetic and unattainable,” they said. Keith rolled his eyes and snorted bitterly. Hunk’s horn honked at them as they drove by into an alley beside the building. Keith hadn’t realized they somehow managed to arrive before they did. Pidge was walking up to the front door, punching in a code.  
“Come on, I know where they keep the key,” Pidge said with a gesture towards the buzzing door. They pulled it open and Keith was ushered inside. “To the elevator,” Pidge said. Keith slowly followed, suddenly feeling nervous that he was going to be walking into Lance’s home.

“You’re such a nerd,” Pidge said, glancing over at him with a grin. Keith’s brows furrowed and he looked at them in confusion.

“What? Why?” Keith asked.

“You realize when you’re lost in thought your expression gives you away completely right? You’re excited! Your cheeks are pink! I _knew_ you still liked him,” Pidge said in a smug tone that Keith decided he wasn’t too keen on.

“Whatever,” he murmured as Pidge chuckled. The elevator doors opened and they rode up to the fifth floor. “Also, as a warning, stay away from Zap. He’s Lucifer incarnate!” Pidge said grimly.

“Really?”

“Yeah, he won’t let me near him. He’s always on edge. But he usually hides when people are over so you might not even see him. But just wanted to give you fair warning,” Pidge said.

“Well, he only has one eye, right? And Lance got him from a shelter? He probably was abused,” Keith said matter-of-factly. Pidge grumbled.

“Psh, don’t try to make me feel sorry for him. He’s the cat-zombie from Pet Sematary and no one can convince me otherwise.” Pidge folded their arms as the elevator dinged. “Lance told you he worked at a shelter? Did he tell you why he had to quit?” Pidge said with a sudden smile on their face. Keith’s brows furrowed.

“No, he only said he got the cat there,” Keith said.

“Well yeah, he was working there. And he kept trying to adopt every animal that came through. His parents now own two cats and three dogs--two of which Lance brought home from work. He also got Shay’s family to take a dog and a cat and a parakeet. I have lizards now. He was too much of a bleeding heart for that job, really. He should have known,” Pidge said with a lofty smile. _Adorable_. It was too adorable. Keith shouldn’t be allowed access to such information, really. His heart couldn’t take it.

Pidge knelt down in front of the apartment marked “10” and felt around the bottom molding. Stuck in between the board and the wall, they produced a key and unlocked the door. They pushed the door open and stepped aside, letting Keith enter first. The very first thing Keith noticed was the smell. It smelled like cookies. Something sweet and warm and inviting. Pidge flipped on a light and immediately walked to the couch and fell into it. Keith stood by the doorway, looking around.

He was in one large room that served as three separate rooms. To his right was a fairly ordinary open kitchen, clean, with the exception of some dish towels and a covered plate of cookies. It opened up into the dining area which was a small table for four. A thick bookshelf separated the dining area and what Keith assumed was the living room portion of the room. Pidge was already turning on the television and getting comfortable when Shay and Hunk entered, nearly knocking into Keith. Hunk chuckled.

“What are you doing standing in the doorway, Keith? Kick your shoes off, make yourself at home. Help yourself to whatever’s in the kitchen,” Hunk said. Every time Hunk spoke, Keith felt his heart grow three sizes. He was like the Grinch and Hunk was a singing village of Whos.

“Thanks,” Keith said fondly as he started pulling his boots off.

“Hunk, I’m Daisy,” Pidge shouted from the couch. Hunk grumbled in response.

“Dang it, Pidge!” He said in response as he jogged over to the sofa. Shay was grabbing a water from the fridge.

“Want one?” She offered Keith. She tossed the bottle to Keith before he had time to reply and he caught it with ease as he continued to look around the room. It appeared they were in the center room of the apartment. Off to each side of the living area was a miniature hallway that appeared to lead into bedrooms. Keith’s feet unconsciously trudged towards one of the doors as he sipped his water. His body halted just outside as he attempted to nonchalantly glance into the room, but it was draped in darkness and his efforts at being sneaky were wasted. With a light sigh, he made his way to the couch.

“I play winner,” he said, falling down beside Pidge as if he was at home.

“No need. All of us can play at once. But beware, Pidge cheats,” Hunk said, handing Keith a controller. Keith chuckled as Pidge squeaked out in indignation.

“Why does everyone call using the clear cut devices the game provides to my advantage ‘cheating’?”

“Because it’s the _way_ you do it!” Hunk said in a mocking grumpy tone. He was seated on the floor in front of the sofa and Pidge pressed their foot into his shoulder to push him. They laughed as the game started up and Shay sat on the armrest of the couch to watch the rest of them play.

 

+++++++

 

Hours passed easily. Keith bowed out not-so-gracefully after losing for the fourth time. He was just relieved he hadn’t thrown the controller and broken it--something that may or may not have happened when playing against Shiro as a teen; he was still getting hell for that one. Hunk was right, Pidge cheated fair and square.

Keith took out his phone to check the time when he noticed a missed call from Shiro. Shoot. Shiro had said he was going to call, hadn’t he? Keith’s minor guilt was suddenly swept up by that same bitter feeling he had when he’d heard Shiro’s news. He decided he’d rather avoid that conversation for a bit longer while he had fun with these new people.

“You checking up on the famous cats again?” Pidge said, sitting out a round to let Shay and Hunk play together. Pidge laid their head on Keith’s shoulder, spying on his phone without shame. Keith shifted his shoulder so Pidge’s head slid down.

“No!” He said defensively. Pidge snorted and sat up again.

“Add me. So at least if anyone ever finds your phone they won’t be _too_ depressed by your feed,” Pidge said with a grin. Keith smirked in spite of himself and rolled his eyes.

“Sure. What’s your username?” He asked as he opened the app. Pidge deftly slipped the phone out of his grip and started typing into it. In seconds they were done.

“I added Shay and Hunk too,” Pidge said before turning to him with a look of devastating cunning playing on their face. “Should I add Lance too?” Pidge said, their mouth pulling tight into a grin as each word was spoken. Keith’s brows furrowed in irritation and slight embarrassment.

“What? No!” He said, grabbing for his phone. Pidge surrendered it easily.

“Why not? He’s going to get his feelings hurt, you know. When he finds out you added all of us and not him,” Pidge said. Their tone hinted at serious, but the smile was still resting on their lips.

“No he won’t. Will he?” Keith asked, never certain when Pidge was serious. Pidge smirked and shrugged, watching the game on the screen again.

“Hunk, you are really sucking tonight, what’s going on, man?” Pidge asked him as Shay won another round.

“I’ve been practicing,” Shay said proudly. She held out the controller to Pidge. “Switch with me?” She asked. Pidge shrugged again and sat down on the floor with Hunk, their tiny frame leaning against his in an oddly adorable juxtaposition. Keith was scrolling through Pidge’s Instagram feed. There were lots of lizards and Pidge making rude gestures and faces into the camera. A few pictures of their music systems, and some more lizards. Then another row down was a picture that stopped him from scrolling and he clicked it before his brain even processed what he was doing.

There was Lance, chewing on a pen, a look of calm contemplation on his face--at least that’s the only way Keith could describe it--holding his guitar in his hunched over shoulders. The caption read “Trying To Write A New Song Looks™” with some weird hashtags Keith couldn’t decipher. His eyes were glued to the screen, studying the serene expression that had just a hint of frustration, maybe. It didn’t look like Lance knew the picture was being taken. It kind of made Keith’s heart ache.

“That’s a good one of him,” Shay said suddenly, and Keith only then realized she had taken up a seat beside him. He jerked his head away from his screen and held his phone down reflexively.

“Oh..oh. Uh. What?” Were the jumbled words that came from his mouth. Shay giggled softly in the way Keith had already grown used to. There was a calming effect to it and he suddenly felt less tense.

“Can I, uh, talk to you on the balcony for a minute?” Shay asked him, her tone taking a serious turn. Keith was taken aback by it and the tension returned immediately.  
“Sure,” he said, standing abruptly. He quickly glanced at the two on the floor. Pidge was twitching and swerving their body in whatever direction their player turned, while Hunk remained hunched over chanting “no no no, _come on_ Yoshi!” to the screen. Shay led Keith to some curtains that were behind the small table, hiding the sliding glass door Keith never even noticed.

“So, um, what’s up?” Keith asked once they were both outside and the door was closed. He leaned against the balcony railing, turning his back against the view of the street below.

“Pidge filled me in on what went down the other night,” Shay said softly. “Well, it was more like I pestered her into telling me what was up because I knew something was going on, but I didn’t have it a hundred percent figured out.” Keith’s cheeks stung, and he wasn’t sure if it was embarrassment or the crisp October night air.

“Oh,” was all Keith could say. He had no idea why Shay was bringing it up.

“You were smiling, like, a lot just now. At his picture. Pidge thought you might have cooled your jets on Lance, but I know that look when I see it. I smile like that at Hunk’s pictures, or his texts,” Shay in such a knowing way that Keith’s cheeks stung more and he definitely knew why that time.

“Listen, I don’t want to cause any weirdness to your group, if that’s what you’re worried about, I can--” Keith started to say, wondering if Shay was the group’s ambassador and that Keith was about to get the diplomatic boot. Shay started laughing, however.

“No no. It’s..not like that, Keith. I hope I’m not being too nosy. I mean I _know_ I’m being nosy, but you can tell me if I need to chill. But I’m just curious about something,” Shay said, tapping her index finger to her chin. “What is it you like about him? Is it just attraction?” Shay asked.

There were those questions again. Those interrogative questions that put Keith right under the spotlight that would shine on all the grim details of his innermost thoughts and feelings. But there was such a softness to the way Shay spoke, Keith always felt compelled to answer.

“Well, attraction, yes. I think he’s very attractive,” Keith admitted, trying not to stutter. “I guess that’s why I wrote...the ad. Pidge warned me that he’d be abrasive and hard to deal with and they were right about that,” Keith said.

“So you don’t like him? You just think he’s hot?” Shay’s questions were purely inquisitive, no judgment behind them. Her smile was oddly encouraging.

“No, he’s also very thoughtful and generous when he wants to be? He’s goofy, but he kind of owns it and he loves you guys a lot. Like he cares about you all so obviously. Um, and the way he was singing in harmony parts to the songs that came on the radio when we were driving home from the fair...You’d think that would be annoying, but it wasn’t. I guess because he has such a nice voice, I don’t know. And I guess he can be grating and hard to handle at times, but I’m not much better in that department. Probably worse. God, and his smile is so--shit!” Keith suddenly covered his mouth as his brain caught up to it and realized the information that he was giving to Shay so freely.

Mostly, he was concerned with the fact that he hadn’t even realized how far gone he was. He had been writing this off as some intense, inexplicable attraction to Lance that he couldn’t seem to shake. But now, he had laid it all out for Shay, and himself. It wasn’t inexplicable at all. He was just so unmistakably into him and it floored him that he hadn't realized it sooner.

His eyes darted to Shay as he attempted to cover as much of his burning red face as possible. Her smile was soft and wide and understanding. Sympathetic.

“ _Booooy_. Okay. You got it _bad_ ,” Shay said with a sweet laugh. Her words made Keith feel like he had just passed some kind of test.

“I can’t believe I just said all of that to you. I mean I’ve barely even told _Shiro_ that much,” Keith admitted, a hint of laughter in his own voice. _Because I had no idea,_ Keith thought to himself.

“I have that effect on people,” Shay said with a wink. Keith nodded. Whether she meant it as a joke or not, it was certainly true for him. “So what now?” Shay asked, moving to lean against the balcony railing with him. Keith’s eyebrows knit in confusion.

“What do you mean? I mean, sure I like..I’m into him. But I don’t think the feeling’s mutual,” Keith said, looking down at the yellow threading of his black socks. Shay snorted.

“Keith,” Shay said, almost sympathetically, “I can’t betray Lance’s trust. I’m kind of surprised Pidge did, but she is an enigma at times,” she started. Keith nodded, not expecting any less from her. They were practically shoulder to shoulder. Or they would have been if Shay wasn’t so much taller than he was.

“I like that about you guys. I wouldn’t ask you to do that. But now I’m kind of confused,” Keith admitted, not sure what Shay was trying to tell him.

“Sorry about that. I was being nosy to see if your feelings weren’t superficial. Now that I know they aren’t,” Shay said, putting a gentle hand on his “I think you should tell him how you feel.”

Keith knew enough about Shay already to know this wasn’t some kind of mean joke. He honestly didn’t think Shay capable of such cruelty, and yet, he wanted to laugh. Tell Lance how he feels? Why? Why would he put himself through that? He scoffed involuntarily at the notion.

“What?” He said after a moment. Shay’s nose scrunched to the side a little as her smile turned pitying, then shifted back to her usual warm one.

“Lance would like that. He likes people being direct and honest. Be bold, Keith. Whether or not his feelings for you are mutual, he’d really respect that,” Shay said. Keith searched her eyes. Her vagueness was not helping her advice along. “Whether or not”. _Whether or not_ was a big difference.

“That’s easy for you to say when you have someone like Hunk who is so over the top in love with you,” Keith said, biting back the bitter tones. Shay didn’t deserve his bitter feelings. She barked out a small laugh.

“True. Hunk was so obvious. But he was also shy and nervous at first. The first time he tried to ask me out,” Shay said, before erupting with laughter, “He was sweating through, like, three layers and nearly fainted. I ended up having to ask him out or else he might have ended up in the hospital or something.” Her story was told through laughter and her tone was so overly fond it made Keith’s heart ache with envy. Her laughter subsided. “Sure, Hunk and I were obvious about our feelings before we were together. And now we’re ‘sickeningly cute’, as Pidge likes to say...often. But you know what? Despite how nervous Hunk was, he still tried with me. And you’ll never get anywhere with Lance if you don’t say anything. I know that much,” Shay said, her voice taking on a more harsh, motherly tone. Keith sighed, he lifted his hands from the railing and rubbed his forearms, suddenly feeling cold in the night air.

“You’re right,” he said after a moment before glancing to her. “You guys are sickeningly cute.” Shay laughed from her belly and it worked to calm Keith slightly as his mind was already working through scenario after scenario of how telling Lance how he felt could go horribly, horribly wrong. Maybe if he prepared himself for the worst, it wouldn’t be so bad. Suddenly the door slid open and Hunk stuck his head out.

“Not to interrupt, but, Keith, if you want to make it back to Lance in time, you should probably leave soon,” he said.

“It's fine. We were done talking,” Shay said as she held out a hand to Hunk. He grabbed it and pulled her back inside.

“You’re cold,” Keith heard him say on the other side of the curtain.

“Then give me a hug!” Shay demanded playfully. Keith sighed into a begrudging smile. Sickening.

 

+++++++

 

**Thursday, October 21st**

 

The streets were fairly empty on the ride back to the restaurant, shortening the travel time by several minutes. Keith had hoped for the extra time to decide what he would do. Would he listen to Shay? The other option was to just continue pining in secret and hating himself more and more as he became less familiar to himself. Yes, it was true he had always had difficulties making friends and meeting people. But since he had met Lance, he felt as though was almost another person entirely. Shiro said this was normal for Keith, but he still hated it.

So he should just tell him, right? The worst that could happen was that Lance would not be interested. But now there were friends involved. Would that mean he couldn’t hang out with the rest of them anymore? Would it be too awkward of a group dynamic? Or were they all chill enough to move past it? That worried him. He’d like to think they’d move past it, but if Lance felt weird at all, they would undoubtedly support him. He finally had a group of people that made him feel more connected to a part of himself that he kept under the surface most of the time. He didn’t want to lose that.

 _Find a way._ He thought to himself as he parked his bike outside the restaurant. Find a way to move past any awkwardness. Make it not a big deal. _Somehow_. Keith looked through the windows of the restaurant. It looked like the staff was still inside, cleaning up, so he sat on his bike and pulled out his phone and pulled up the collar on his jacket a bit to cover his neck from the crisp air. Finally, it was feeling like October.

 

 

 

> 12:12AM
> 
> >To Shiro: Sorry I missed ur call. I was hanging out with Pidge and Hunk and Shay. I’ll call u tmw after work?

 

Keith suddenly realized it was three in the morning where Shiro was and closed his text window. Before he realized his intentions, he tapped on the Instagram icon and opened it back up to Pidge’s profile, scrolling down to The Picture that had spurred his conversation with Shay. He noticed, this time, that Lance had left some self-congratulatory comment about how handsome he was even when he didn’t try that made Keith roll his eyes, even if he utterly agreed with that statement. His thumb trembled lightly over the link to Lance’s profile before he pressed down.

It wasn’t a big deal, right? He wasn’t being creepy by looking through Lance’s page, was he? That’s what people did these days, wasn’t it? Keith didn’t know, but he still felt like a bit of a stalker or something, admiring the object of his desire from afar, as it were. Seeing Lance’s profile picture quickly squashed any uneasiness with pure distraction and he began scrolling through the profile. The edges of Keith’s mouth pulled up into an involuntary grin.

Lance’s profile was filled with selfies, cat pictures, and group shots of his friends, with occasional pictures of children Keith assumed were his siblings or maybe nieces and nephews. There was some comfort, as he scrolled down, that his pictures are exactly what Keith would expect from him. There was no pretense at all about who he was as a person; no insincerity or some glamorous facade that he tried to present to spectators.

Keith hadn’t told Shay. He had stopped himself, honestly. His sincere smile is what drew Keith in so quickly. His smile could be blamed for where he was at that moment, sitting outside a restaurant past midnight, looking at cute pictures of Lance’s life. He paused a moment when he saw a picture of Lance, in a wetsuit, one arm wrapped around a surfboard, his other arm wrapped around some girl that looked nothing like him so Keith couldn’t assume she was family off the bat. His heart sank a little before he could stop it.

“Well if it isn't Mr. Red-Isn't-My-Favorite-Color!” He heard Lance say from the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. He was startled, then nervous, as he realized it would probably not be great for Lance to find him snooping around in his photos--even if they were in public domain. His phone slipped from his hand and into the gutter and Keith cringed and sucked in his breath as he heard something that sounded very much like a crack.  
“Crap!” He huffed out, leaning down awkwardly after it. He nearly fell from his motorcycle and pulled it down with him as he dove after his phone. He twisted his body in time to avoid _that_ catastrophe, kneeling on the asphalt of the street. When he finally pulled himself back up by the seat of his bike, gravelly phone in hand, the first thing he saw was Lance laughing so hard through the worst attempt at a stifled smile that Keith had ever seen. Once he saw Keith looking at him with a slight glare in his eyes, he covered his mouth.

“Dude, are you alright?” He asked, his cheeks twitching from trying to remain composed. Keith sighed into the smallest of laughs, opting to laugh at himself instead of being embarrassed for once.

“Go ahead,” he said, waving Lance over. “Get it out.” He ran a hand through his hair and then checked on his phone. No crack. What luck. He sighed in relief as Lance walked up to his bike. Keith noticed Lance's uniform was covered up by his faded green military jacket, fortunately. It was too distracting. 

“I’m done, honestly,” Lance said, a few last twitches on his lips before his eyes darted down to the motorcycle. “So this is it huh? She got a name?” Keith dusted off his knees and shook his head.

“Nah,” he answered with a grunt.

“What? I thought all _real biker dudes_ named their _hogs_ ,” Lance grinned. Keith groaned and laughed at that.

“Where did you...okay you watch too many movies. I mean some people name their possessions like that but I dunno. It seemed kind of silly to me?” Keith scratched the back of his head.

“Silly to the guy who named a stuffed lion doll ‘Lion’, what a shocker!” Lance said in an exaggerated goofy tone. Keith smiled and rolled his eyes again.  
“What would you name it then?” He asked suddenly. His eyes caught Lance’s as they widened in slight surprise.

“The lion? Or the bike?” Lance asked.

“The bike. The lion’s name is non-negotiable at this point,” Keith said with a smirk.

“Hmm, what would I name it?....What would I name it?” Lance mumbled to himself. Keith watched him as he studied his motorcycle, feeling the seat, squeezing the throttle, sliding his finger over the handles to the mirror before he smiled into it and wriggled his eyebrows. Keith rolled his eyes for what felt like the tenth time in under two minutes and crossed his arms, clenching his jaw to partially contain the smile on his lips.

How was he supposed to tell this adorable person that he liked him? How would he even approach the subject that maybe they should try to go out or something when he could barely hold a conversation with him? Was it because they weren’t compatible or because Lance’s presence tied knots in his stomach that twisted up through him and tied his tongue as well? Keith sure as hell didn’t know.

“Elisa!” Lance finally said, caressing his pointed chin with his thumb and forefinger. Keith pulled himself out of his thoughts and stared at Lance suspiciously.

“Why Elisa?” Keith said. It better not have been some ex or random hot girl, or so help him.

“I can’t tell you that. But I can tell you without a doubt this is the perfect name for your motorcycle,” Lance said, smiling wide. Keith continued staring at him suspiciously as he unhooked Lance’s helmet from his bike. He held it out to Lance.

“Well, whatever. It’s not like I’m actually going to name it that anyway,” Keith said.

“What? I thought we were making this official!” Lance said in mock pain, placing a hand on his chest. “You wound me, man.”

“Sure,” Keith said dubiously. He mounted his motorcycle, shifting the weight of it beneath him.

“Did Pidge have a fun ride?” Lance asked, the goofiness to his voice from seconds before had vanished and had been replaced with a timid tentativeness.

“They screamed a lot. But then after about five minutes they got really into it and screamed some more. But it was mostly excited screaming,” Keith said, staring at the helmet in his lap.

“Cool. Well, I guess I’ll see you around?” Lance questioned as if he truly didn’t know. Keith’s nervous energy was trapped in his chest, he was almost shaking.

“Um, do you--do you want to?” Keith asked, finally looking away from his helmet to look at Lance. He was met with a surprised stare.

“Do I want to _what_?” Lance’s brows knit in a slight confusion, his expression was more serious than Keith could remember seeing it. Keith blinked, wondering if Lance was making this harder on purpose.

“See me around? Um, see me again? Hang out... with me? I mean, do you even like me at all? Because I really like you...guys, and I don’t want it to be weird, uh, if you don’t want me around,” Keith’s voice had risen considerably, possibly to drown out the heartbeat he could hear in his ears. Lance looked surprised by these words.

“I guess you bother me,” Lance said. Keith felt pinpricks directly beneath his ribs. He hadn’t expected that at all. At the most, he was expecting a “you’re alright, we can hang as friends” kind of reply; but this, no. Wow. Keith steeled himself to keep his expression from falling too far down into the depths of dejection. He started the engine on his motorcycle, really wanting to get out of there.

“Crud. Um, I didn’t mean it like that! But that’s exactly why you bother me!” Lance was suddenly waving his arms around as he spoke with a new nervous energy. Keith was only more confused. “I mean, I obviously have a tendency to say the wrong thing, sometimes. But with you, it’s like I never know the right thing to say. You’re so hard to read. _That’s_ what bothers me, not _you_ , really. I shouldn’t have put it that way. Sorry,” Lance scratched his shoulder and looked away for a minute, down the sidewalk. “I thought you were the one that was bothered by _me_.”

“Well, just to clear things up, I like you!” Keith said loudly, over the hum of his engine. Had his voice cracked? He prayed to whatever deity might be merciful and real that his voice hadn’t cracked. He cleared his throat as Lance stood paralyzed to the spot, not a muscle in his body moved except that his eyes were now the size of two saucers.

“How do you..mean that exactly?” Lance was hugging his helmet now. He stepped forward to close the gap between them, to hear Keith better over the rumbling of his engine. Keith cut it.

“You’re really...going to make me?...Okay,” Keith said, the slightest hint of irritation. “I’m into you. I’m fond of you, I...have a crush on you. I’m attracted to you. However you want to put it, that’s what I am. I’m _interested in you_ ,” Keith said. He’d done it. He’d said it. Filled with adrenaline, he added “and just so you know, I haven’t been acting entirely like myself either. If you think _I’m_ hard to read, you should take a look in the mirror, Lance,” Keith said.

At least Lance didn’t hate him. But Keith was entirely unclear what Lance felt beyond that. If he didn’t like him, his loss. His loss. Some part of Keith’s brain kept trying to tell him, to convince him that being rejected wouldn’t be the worst thing. 

He felt a twitch beneath his eye as he heard a slow trickle of laughter come out of Lance. It soon flowed into a booming screeching kind of laugh that made Lance sound like he was possessed. He was doubled over, hands on his knees, laughing into his own chest. Keith laughed nervously. Once again, Lance subverted any expectations with which Keith had come into this conversation. The laughter died down.

“You should have seen your face. You...looked so serious. Like you were about to hit me, or something, when you were telling me you liked me. Oh my god. Oh god, it was just so funny. Sorry, man. Oh gosh. Wow,” Lance stood and actually wiped away a tear from his eye. Keith exhaled through his nose, his patience all but used up. He moved to turn his engine again.

“Wait, wait, uh, sorry. Wait. I really thought I was being super obvious. I mean, for crying out loud I asked you to kiss me for luck at the fair. I went through all the trouble to win that lion for you. I mean, why else would I do that? I actually just thought you couldn’t stand me or something. After what I said to your cousin, I thought, that’s it! Nice knowin ya!” Keith stared at him in bewilderment.

“I thought that kiss thing was a joke. You seemed mad at me in the car when I made that joke, so I thought you were just tolerating me for the sake of your friends,” Keith said before pulling one arm into the other and rubbing it nervously.

“Because you called me an idiot. I’m... It’s true, that bothered me, but I got over it pretty quickly. I mean, I was flirting with you all night? You didn’t catch on to any of that?” Lance was letting out breathy, nervous laughter as he spoke. Keith half-smiled in spite of himself.

“I really didn’t. I was too busy being..stupid and self-conscious, I guess.” Keith could barely get the words out. He hated having to admit he had anything but stellar self-confidence, even if that wasn’t always the case. Lance smiled at him sympathetically.

“I might know a thing or two about that. Not personally, mind you. But I’ve read some books,” Lance said with the slightest wriggle to his eyebrows. Keith scoffed.

“Right,” he said. “Wait, so you were flirting with me?” Keith started running a checklist of all the things he could remember Lance saying to him on the night of the fair. All of the things he'd convinced himself were in his head, or wishful thinking.

“Yes, I just said I was. This would have never been a problem in high school. I was the king of cheesy pick up lines and come ons. I’ve since toned it down, but at least there was no room for guessing back then,” Lance said, a sly look about his face. Keith squinted in disbelief.

“And how did that work out for you?”

“About as well as my more subtle attempts for the most part. But I guess I am standing here talking to a cute guy on a motorcycle, so maybe I shouldn’t give up on subtlety just yet,” Lance said. Keith’s heart was back to its usual thudding as Lance’s goofier smile was traded in for his best one. That incredibly sincere, warm smile that just managed to melt Keith. His face screwed up as though he’d smelled something sour, and he felt the familiar heat crawling up his neck. _Cute_? _Him_? Lance laughed softly again.

“Listen, I have a proposition,” Lance said. Keith’s eyes raised from the spot on the sidewalk he had zoned in on as soon as the word “cute” fell from Lance’s perfect lips. He focused on Lance’s eyes and was completely absorbed in them immediately.

“Okay,” he said dully.

“I think we could both use a redo. I think we should start over from scratch, maybe try this out again and see where it goes from there?” Lance offered. Keith thought on it for a moment. He _would_ like a chance to erase from his memory the shy, fumbling Keith that Lance knew. He didn’t know who’d replace him exactly, but it would have to be better than that, surely.

“I think that could work,” Keith said after a moment. He watched as Lance’s eyes lit up.

“Great. Be warned though,” Lance said, moving in a little closer, “Once I turn on the full effect of my charm there’s no turning back. You’ll be helpless against my wiles.” Lance raised an eyebrow and smiled slyly. Keith snorted.

“Whatever you say. But if that’s how you’re starting this off, you’re already in the negatives,” Keith said.

“Hey! Not fair! Okay then we’re starting over...right....NOW,” Lance turned around then immediately turned back towards Keith and held out his hand.

“Nice to meet you, name’s Lance,” he said, holding out a hand towards Keith. Keith stared at the hand skeptically.

“Why are you like this?”

“Dude, Keith. Your new first impression is coming off as a bit rude. I don’t even know if I want to officially ask you for your number now,” Lance said in very offended tone even as a smile was fixed on his lips.  
“You don’t have my number?” Keith asked, incredulous and frankly, a little indignant that Lance hadn’t tried to get it from Pidge as soon as possible. What kind of half-assed crush was this guy having anyway? Lance sighed and dropped his hand.  
“Well there goes that idea,” Lance said, disappointment in his voice. “But yeah, I asked Pidge for it but she wouldn’t give it to me. She said I should get it from you myself. Like sure, Pidge, let me just call him and ask for it. _Oh wait_!” Lance said, crossing his arms as he thought back to that conversation, his smile falling for a millisecond before it returned and Lance looked at Keith with a renewed enthusiasm. “So, Keith, was it? How about we exchange numbers and maybe go out some time?” Lance’s eyebrows twitched in amusement. Keith ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to keep himself from dragging it down his face.

“Sure,” Keith said with a curt smile.

“I’m being really cute here, I don’t understand why you’re not more enthusiastic! Don’t you want my number?” Lance looked slightly concerned as a hint of a pout formed on his lips. A pang of want welled up in Keith, but his eyes widened when he realized he might accidentally be putting Lance off of the entire idea.

“Sorry! I’m tired, and this is all kind of...unusual. I mean not you, just the situation. Yes, I want your number. What is it?” Keith said rapidly. Lance’s smile returned.

Keith typed in his phone as Lance rattled off the numbers to him and quickly called him to get his number into Lance’s phone.

“Um, since we’re starting over and all that, I’m honestly not a great conversationalist over the phone. It’s easier to text me if you want to chat. Hope that’s okay,” Keith said, a bit of the shyness returning to him. Lance’s smile widened.

“That’s fine,” he said.

“Also, I added everyone else on Instagram because Pidge made me. Can I add you too? They said you’d feel left out if I didn’t,” Keith said. Lance laughed.

“She’s probably right. You’re asking me, though? Man. That’s cute. Go ahead and add me, nerd,” Lance said. There was that word again. _Cute_. There was that flush in his cheeks again, the fluttering feeling in his stomach again, the warmth in his chest again.

“I guess I’ll see you soon?” Keith turned his head to look at him again. The only light was a streetlamp a few yards away, illuminating just enough of Lance’s face to still send Keith into dangerous fluttering territory.

“Yeah. I’ll text you,” Lance said, leaving no room for interpretation.

“Cool.” Keith smiled lightly, turning on his engine and picking up his helmet.

“Oh, and Keith?” Keith turned toward Lance again. He was holding up his phone in front of his face and before Keith put together what he was doing, he heard that little snapshot sound coming from it. 

“Hey!” Keith protested.

“I need a picture for your contact info,” Lance said, brushing off Keith’s grimace.

“How many Keiths do you know that you need to organize by photos?” Keith’s head felt heavy and he realized he didn’t have the fight in him to argue for much longer. Lance could have his ugly photo of Keith looking like he was ready to go dumpster diving if he wanted.  
“It’s a good one, don’t worry!” Lance said, still looking at the picture on his phone. Keith grumbled and put on his helmet.

“Bye, Lance!” He shouted over the sound of his engine and to offset the muffle from the helmet. Lance finally looked up from his phone and waved.

“Hasta la later, Keith,” were his last words before Keith zipped off down the street and headed home.

 

+++++++

 

It was three in the morning and he was on his knees in an old shirt and pajama bottoms and rubber gloves, cleaning the last of the grout from the tile in his bathroom. He had already went through his entire kitchen until it was spotless, not a dish out of the cupboard or a stray can or bottle anywhere. He had even cleaned his oven which he had not done since he moved into this place.

He was hoping the cleaning would make him tired and kill the buzzed feeling that was vibrating through his entire body. Instead, he just got really into cleaning, and by 3:15AM his entire apartment was immaculate from top to bottom. He took a quick shower, put on some fresh clothes and fell into his bed. As tired as he was finally feeling, he still had no idea if he could sleep.

Lance _liked_ him. He liked him _and_ he thought he was _cute_. This guy who was blessed in the department of good looks, and probably, honestly, out of his league was into _him_. He could hardly believe it. Keith’s heart still fluttered each time the realization hit him. He laughed at himself a little as the thought crossed his mind again. He’d been torturing himself for almost two weeks for nothing. Suddenly his phone buzzed and despite the fact that Lance was likely in bed, asleep, an excited shot ran up through his chest and labored his breathing. He picked it up. A disappointed sigh escaped him when he realized it was a text from Shiro. It was quickly followed by a pang of guilt for reacting that way towards Shiro.

 

 

 

 

> 3:45AM
> 
> **> Shiro:** No worries. I’m happy you’re hanging out with them some more, they seem like good folks. I’ll try calling again this afternoon. *Smiley face*

 

Keith smirked and he shook his head.

 

 

 

 

> 3:46AM
> 
> >To Shiro: JUST USE THE ACTUAL EMOJIS. And okay. Talk to u then.

 

 

 

 

> 3:47AM
> 
> **> Shiro:** What are you still doing awake young man?

 

 

 

 

> 3:47AM
> 
> >To Shiro: I'm almost always up this late. But couldn’t sleep. Cleaned my apartment. You’ll be happy next time u visit.

 

 

 

 

> 3:48AM
> 
> **> Shiro:** Assuming it stays clean for more than 24 hrs, yes. Did everything go alright? Are the sleep issues..related to anything. or anyone??

 

 

 

 

> 3:49AM
> 
> >To Shiro: Kinda. Not in a bad way tho. I can tell you about it when u call. I’m gonna try to sleep now.

 

 

 

 

> 3:50AM
> 
> **> Shiro:** How can you give me such a small morsel of information and then withhold the rest? You’re the worst! You better be more forthcoming over the phone later! *Angry face*!!!!

 

 

 

 

> 3:51AM
> 
> >To Shiro: OMG. I’ll give u a hint. Its about Lance. Good night! >:-}

 

 

 

 

> 3:51AM
> 
> **> Shiro:** No DUH its about Lance. Argh. Fine! Good night my awful cousin.

 

Keith suddenly noticed an icon that wasn’t familiar in the top corner of his phone. He dragged it down and it was a notification from Instagram. He’d been..tagged? What? He quickly opened the app and it led to a photo posted by Lance. That jerk. He posted the photo he’d taken earlier. He was about to leave a comment to take it down when he noticed the caption.

 

 

 

 

> **loseyourselftolance:** Gonna woo the heck outta this guy

 

Keith almost felt angry as his face predictably clenched into a smile that he desperately tried to keep under control so he wouldn’t start laughing too wildly.

“Oh my god,” he murmured at his phone, unable to peel his eyes away from the caption. Beneath it, Pidge had already commented with a seemingly disapproving “gross :P”. Keith wasn’t sure if they meant the picture or Lance’s words, but he was too busy tensing up to care. He was frozen by an overwhelming feeling of contentment. He was happy. Like, really happy for the first time in a while.

He was just lucky Lance hadn’t tried to spring something like that on him in public. He was safely in his home where he could wig out in private so no one except his cat could see him smiling giddily at his screen. Still, he couldn’t let Lance get away with it completely unchallenged. In the small amount of time he had known Lance, he seemed to thrive in adversity. He seemed to almost be motivated by doubt. Goading him _just_ a little seemed like a safe bet at this point. Plus, he would be lying if he said he didn’t get some enjoyment out of it himself.

 

 

 

 

> **k_kogane:** We’ll see about that.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Keylele-Is not a real thing. Basically, Hunk created an instrument that's a modified Ukulele with buttons and keys. So keys+ukulele=keylele. 
> 
> Alright so I'm looking at around 5 chapters but I tend to ramble so much that it might be unrealistic to set that limit on myself. 
> 
> Anyway, doing some research for this chapter was PRETTY. WILD. let me tell ya. 
> 
> Also the teen rating might be premature, but I wanted to put it up just in case! 
> 
> Keep an eye on tags, as they will likely be updating chapter to chapter!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!!!!


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